


Fool's Gold

by PastelMilk



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Death Match, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, F/F, F/M, Fantasy, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Possible Character Death, Romance, Sexual Humor, Swearing, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2020-11-27 14:51:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20950196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PastelMilk/pseuds/PastelMilk
Summary: An in depth re-count of a DnD campaign I'm a part of.Mariain, Zioh, Konrad and Presphyra are four idiots who wake up to find themselves connected to the others by magical golden strings which seal their fate. In a topsy-turvy adventure of romance, pain and sacrifice, they are forced to blindly trust the others in a dangerous game of life and death.





	1. The Ties that Bind

Welcome to Malthopa, the shining coast surrounded by treacherous seas and towering mountains. Here in the capital city of Abjura is where our story begins. It is early morning on Fool’s Day, a celebration of the Lyre bird Goddess where people play tricks and pranks on their neighbours and friends. Here in this city lays a young dwarven woman named Mariain, sound asleep, in The Wonky Donkey tavern, having a strange dream.

Mariain is floating in an inky void, it’s cold and she cannot breathe. She struggles against invisible restraints before a light appears on the horizon somehow illuminating the infinite space. Another light appears, along with another, and another until six lights float in a circle surrounding her. She steps towards a light, somehow drawn to it, she raises her hand and touches the orb. Overcoming her mind is images of the past, present and future. Joy, despair, anger, pain and love rush through her but the faces behind these emotions are missing. The flashes end on the image of a beautiful Elven woman covered with long black hair, she raises her bow and fires off a golden arrow. The arrow pierces Mariain’s chest, pain ricochets through her body and she awakes with a gasp. 

Soft rays of sun blink through the blinds hitting her face signalling the beginning of a new day. The city is slowly beginning to wake, outside her window she sees carts rolling in as store fronts take in new shipments. Mariain raises a hand to block out the sun when something catches her eye. She finds a brilliant golden string tied around her pinky, ring and middle finger on her left hand, with individual strings leading out of her room. That’s different, a prank she had not seen before. People usually knew better than to prank the family of the tavern. Begrudgingly fumbling out of the comfort of her bed she follows the strings, slowly creaking down the stairs to make sure she doesn’t wake her mother, Duradris. As she reaches the bottom the three strings split off in different directions. One leads out a window, one leads down a hallway and one leads out the back door of the kitchen. Mariain stares intently at each string before going towards the one leading down the hallway. following it out the door at the end of the hall leading to the stables. On the other side of the door she sees that the first string has lead her to the sleeping stable boy, a half-elf named Zioh. He must have fallen asleep while working last night before he could make his way home. An extra set of dazzling strings tracing their way back through the bar and resting around his pinky, ring and middle finger on his right hand. She approaches the boy sleeping on a bale of hay and begins shaking him awake. 

“Zioh, Zioh!” He jolts up with a gasp. 

“Oh! Good morning Ma’am!” 

“Oh Zioh, I know I’ve told you, don’t call me ma’am,” 

“Right, yes, sorry Mariain, why did you wake me?” 

“Uh, did you tie these strings on me while I was asleep?” 

“Um... No I’ve just been sleeping down here this morning.” 

“Hmm... I- Really?” He nods “Well... Someone must be pranking us then.”

“It is Fool’s Day, it would not surprise me.” 

“Well, I don’t know where these other two strings are going,” 

“Are you suggesting we follow them?” 

“Well, yeah. Might lead us to the person who did it,” 

“Fair enough, yeah let’s do that,” The two of them head back into the main bar area of the tavern where the other two sets of strings split off. Zioh looks over the strings before piping up.  
“I think we should try the one out the window,” Zioh being to climb through the window awkwardly navigating his long legs in the limited space. Mariain sighs before turning to the front door, exiting and looping back around her left towards the other side of the window where Zioh is struggling to get through, eventually when he makes it he gets up proud to find a smug Mariain looking back at him. He straightens up as Mariain points to the string leading further down the street towards the palace. “Uh, should we proceed?” 

“I mean, I guess, the tavern aint gonna be open for another couple of hours,” As they follow the string they are lead to the fancier district of the city before finding the string has lead into the closed doors of The Broken Stool Tavern; the rival Inn of The Wonky Donkey. “I don’t know about you Zioh but I’m not so much into the breaking and entering,” 

“The string has lead us here though,” 

“We can try to cut it off right? Does It really matter?” 

“I mean, if the string led you to me perhaps there is something that- I don’t know,” 

“It’s someone pranking us Zioh,” 

“Then we’ll find out who is pranking us,” 

“By busting in!? If I get caught, thats bad business sense!” 

“I guess PR is quite important,” 

“Yes, it is!” Zioh looks towards the final string behind them,

“Perhaps we should follow the other one instead and check this one out later, when it’s opened,”

“I mean, I guess but I gotta go back and start cooking up breakfast soon,” 

“Let's do this quickly!” They retrace their steps, following the final string back down the main street and past The Wonky Donkey to the nearby park. In the distance they see a man sleeping on a bench in the park with the strings leading directly towards them connecting to the same three fingers on his left hand. Zioh creeps towards the figure slowly before gentle shaking him awake. Little do they know that this man is having the same strange dream that Mariain had.  
The handsome man wakes with a jolt, head-butting the half-elf leaning over him. Upon contact Zioh stumbles back holding his head and groaning, as the other man shakes off the pain much quicker and addresses them with a chipper tone. 

“Oh, hello there!” Zioh looks up, a hand still clutching his head,

“Are you ok, sir?” 

“Uh yeah, just hit my head on your head I guess?” Mariain comforts Zioh, holding onto his shoulder and cheek trying to look at the damage despite the large height difference. 

“Oh dear, Zioh are you all right?” 

“Yes I am, ma’am,” 

“I know I told you not to call me ma’am!” 

“Oh right yes, sorry ma’am- Mariain,” It’s an unusual sight for the charming man to wake up to two strangers looming over him but rather than being suspicious, he looks up with a glint in his eye and the chance to make new friends. 

“So what are you guys doing out here?” Mariain is the first to response, 

“Well, I woke up with these strings on my fingers, that was mighty strange and-” And she is promptly cut off by Zioh, 

“Did you prank us?” The mystery man's eyes fall onto the strings Mariain gestures to and realises he too has them, looking over his hand at various angles twirling it this way and that before Mariain chimes back in.

“Did you tie them on me?” 

“Did you tie them on me?” he parrots back, head tilting. 

“I surely did not.” 

“Ok,” He laughs, Zioh looking around in thought, their strings all linking up neatly to the others with just one string from each of them shining brilliantly back toward The Broken Stool. 

“Well, if it wasn’t you or us, it must be the person in that tavern! We should go find them again, It’ll probably be open soon!” 

“Our tavern will also open soon Zioh, we got work to do.” He grumbles before agreeing and he turns to go before looking back behind his shoulder at the man on the bench.  
“Are you coming?” 

“Oh uh, yeah I’ll come,” He smoothly jumps up to his feet standing upright and walks up next to Zioh. Mariain sighs and joins them as they head back to her mother’s tavern.

“What’s your name?” 

“Oh, I’m Konrad, Nice to meet you.” 

“I’m Zioh and this is Mariain,” 

“It sure is nice to meet you too Konrad,” 

They enter The Wonky Donkey through the back door they exited from and also immediately hear a stern voice from the top of the stairs, “Mariain, where have you been going at this hour?”

“Oh well mama, I’ve been, I done been pranked last night so I-“ 

“Oh, what happened deary?”

“Well I woke up, and there was these strings tied to my finger and I surely did not tie them. So I follow this here one which lead me to Zioh, and then I followed this one, bringing me to this gentleman right here, so we were gonna follow this here last one to see-“ 

“What last string?” 

“This one here Mama,” 

“Mariain, you know I’m not a fan of Fool’s Day, don’t go pranking me now,” 

“Mama I ain't pranking you.” Duradris fumbles down the stairs in a very dwarfish manner while Zioh and Konrad try to confirm what Mariain said. 

“Ma’am, there is a string there. Mister, you can confirm right?” 

“Yeah, there is a string,” She takes Zioh’s hands,

“Zioh, there are no strings around your fingers,” 

“B-but there are.” 

“No, there are not.” As Mariain’s mother handles Zioh’s hand the bright, golden strings in question phase through her. These strings weren’t just tied on, they’re looped with no end, not only that, the length accommodates to how close or how far they were from each other. They were pulled taut no matter what. It has become clear that there is magic involved, magic that Zioh has never seen before in his studies.

“I don’t appreciate you pranking me and I especially don’t appreciate you bringing in some strange man this early in the morning, we hadn’t prepared for the day yet, Mariain this is very unlike you.” 

“I’m sorry Mama, I had a dream last night that real rattled me, rattled me right up”

“That’s ok, I know this day is hard on you too, but we still gotta start getting ready for the customers, they’ll be coming soon.”

“Boys, I gotta stay here,”

“That’s all right, I can run off and investigate.” Mariain’s mother pipes up

“Zioh, you work here.”

“Ah, right. I’ll head back to the stables.”

“And you... Who are you?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, my name is Konrad.”

“Well, I appreciate knowing your name, I was more asking why are you here?”

“Because of those, those strings,”

“There are no strings on your hand young man.”

“Ok, if you say so.” Zioh quickly intervenes,

“I’ll escort them out.” She shakes her head and waddles back up the steps mumbling about pixie dust addicts.

Shortly prior to this a strange occurrence has happened inside The Broken Stool. An Elven woman; Presphyra, has just awoken from a strange dream, what makes this even more unsettling is the fact that she had never slept or dreamt before. She wakes with the comforting feeling of satin sheets held tightly in her fists calms her as she tries to rationalise what she just experience. She focuses her attention on the sounds drifting in from the streets of the people beginning their day and she breathes. Breathing in while stroking her hands along the soft linen she notices a light radiating from her left hand. Strings, three golden strings each wrapped respectively around a different finger. As she slowly rolls her body into a sitting position, her eyes trace the thread as it leads out of her room. She rubs her eyes and blinks back this new feeling of grogginess, her feet find the plush carpet and lead her towards the mirror where she prepares herself for the day. Meticulously she applies powder, blush, lipstick and copious amounts of iridescent glitter. She dresses herself and collects her things shortly after, a small knapsack and a violin case before allowing these strings to lead her downstairs to the common area. She is met with the scent of sizzling sausages wafting towards her as she leans against the counter to gain the attention of the half-orc man cooking.

“Excuse me kind sir,” 

“Evening there lass,” 

“How do... dreams work?” 

“Um, look lady I’m not a brain doctor, I just cook sausages, and you are freaking me out.”  
“Oh, my apologies, I’ll sort myself out, thank you.” 

“You... want some sausage?” 

“Yes thank you, I’ll have some sausage.” The man turns back around preparing two sausages with a spinach leaf next to it and looks back to Presphyra. 

“Healthy breakfast.” Presphyra takes the food gratefully and sits to eat her breakfast, once completed she looks back to the strings on her hands that lead out the door of the tavern. 

“Well, I suppose my adventure for today has to start somewhere.” And she follows the strings. Leading her to the front door of The Wonky Donkey tavern. She looks over the wooden door; still closed for the day, somewhat ready to sit around and wait for a while, until she hears on the other side a commotion stirring. She raises a fist, and knocks. 

\---

On the opposing side, Zioh leads Konrad to the exit of the tavern but as they approach, they catch a knock at the door. “Uh... Mariain, are we closed still?”

“Yeah, we don’t have any food cooked, we don’t open until we got something ready.” He opens the door despite this and as he does he comes face to face with a colourful and confused Elven woman. He opens his mouth to say they are still closed but halters as he looked her over, recognizing the strings attached to her fingers.

“Follow me.”

“Um. I was looking for where these strings end up, I don’t need an ominous ‘follow me’,” He lifts his right hand for her.

“They lead here.” Presphyra seems content with that and follows the half-elf and human duo around the side of the tavern towards the stables; Zioh’s workstation.

“What have you found out about these strings? They aren’t normal.”

“I can’t tell much, it’s a magic I’m unfamiliar with.”

“I don’t understand why or what its purpose is, or why it’s connecting me to you two.”

“And my boss,” Seeing Presphyra’s face contort in confusion prompts Zioh to elaborate, “Uh she is the barmaid of this tavern, Mariain.”

“Oh, that makes sense, and who are you?”

“Uh my name is Zioh Naelee, and you are?”

“I am Presphyra Daerona, but I also go by my stage name, Phyre,”

“… Hold on, what was that?”

“Phyre.”

“What was your full name?”

“Presphyra,”

“Prespire?”

“Presphyra.”

“Pres-fear,”

“You know it’s fine for you to call me Phyre.”

“Pressss flower?”

“Pres-Phy-Ra.”

“Can I call you, Pres?”

“... Yeah sure, that’s fine. And who are you?”

“Oh, I’m Konrad, Konrad Myers.”

“I like... your hair.”

“You have exceptionally good hair.” They arrive at a window and observe Mariain preparing different foods for the upcoming breakfast rush, scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon and her specialty cinnamon muffins. Mariain notices Zioh through the window,

“Oh, that was quick,”

“Yeah! We found the last person with the string here,” Zioh gestures towards Presphyra and she steps forward to Mariain.

“Oh, that’s a coincidence, what’s your name?”

“My name is Presphyra Daerona,” Mariain recognizes this name as the musician scheduled to perform at her tavern the following night.

“People have told me about you, you’re performing here soon, I’ve learned good things,”

“Oh thank you, I’m flattered.”

“So...”

“I do not understand what this string business is.”

“Yeah neither do I, but I’ve learned that my Mama couldn’t see it, she felt we were pranking her.”

“that’s... curious.” Zioh slides in

“I’m considering the string must have brought us together! I don’t know why but there must be some reason all of us got these strings and nobody else can look at them.” Mariain however isn’t sure about Zioh’s hypothesis

“I mean I guess, could be one of those wizard folk... fucking with us,”

“It’s powerful magic though I don’t think a-“

“Powerful wizard prankster!”

“If I was that powerful I’d fuck around with people too.”

“Yeah see?”

“I’d find more use if I was that powerful,”

“Oh, come on, have a little fun.” Konrad pipes in after watching the scene unfold.

“We’re all together now, what should we do next?”

“Well I got to work, I can’t leave.”

“And I gotta take care of those horses. Maybe we can reconvene later?” Presphyra sighs and holds up her hand twiddling her fingers.

“Well, I suppose I know where to find you.” She looks upwards to Konrad, looming a head taller than her, “I will go ahead to the magic store find out what I can, what about you?”

“I’m starving so I’ll line up and get something to eat since they’re opening soon.”

“That sounds like a great idea, take care of yourself!” And she skips away towards the road.

\---

Meanwhile, The Wonky Donkey has opened its doors to several hungry patrons, they pile in the establishment like water bursting through a dam gate. Shouts ordering different meals vibrate throughout the tavern, Mariain makes a note to memorize them as she serves plates and mugs of ale. She notices many regulars of the tavern but also several new faces that she monitors. During this time Konrad sits in a corner of the room with his own meal, also monitoring the guests of the tavern, two of which catch his eye. The first is a humanoid sitting by themselves, closed off from everyone else. They are wearing a grey cloak, the hood up with two little nubs poking upwards on their head and mittens. Strange attire for the heat. The other guest however, was the complete opposite. He looked to be a halfling, or he was gnomish. Dressed in a vest, fancy pants and covered head to toe in golden jewelry. One guest hiding in the corner while another basking in the limelight. The small man takes his plate and sits up at the bar as he eats, but after a few bites of his sausage he turns his head to look at Konrad, locking his eyes with his and for a moment he smiles before looking away. He takes this as an invitation, Konrad makes his way over to the man and sits on the bar stool next to him, ready to strike up a friendly conversation. 

“Hey, how is it goin?”

“Evenin,”

“My name’s Konrad, what brings you here?”

“Sausage,” Comes a quick, blunt response with no room for idle chatter.

“What’s your plans for today?”

“Sausage,”

“Just sausage?”

“I enjoy sausage for breakfast, sausage for lunch, sausage for dinner,”

“Oh uh, ok that’s great, they have great sausage here it’s-“

“It’s alright,”

“Oh, haha... alright, if you say so,” Konrad laughs at the quick-witted response. “I’m just gonna... go over to meet other people, but you enjoy your sausage.” Konrad gives him a pat on the back as he stands from the bar stool, the man cringing away from the touch.  
Konrad is still on a mission to meet new people and refuses to give up so instead he approaches the other person he noticed in the far corner of the bar. As Konrad approaches, she glares up at Konrad with piercing pink eyes. Konrad hesitates and steps back before summoning his courage once more and walking up to them. “I wanted to say hi, my name’s Konrad,”

“Why?”

“Trying to make a friend,”

“Not interested,”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Konrad sits across from her, despite this.

“What are you doing,” Her voice spat venom. 

“Trying to have a chat,” Konrad however, was chipper as always,

“I’m not interested,” 

“Come on, you gotta wanna chat,” 

“Do you want money? What do you want?” 

“I want to have a chat,”

“... Ok lets, chat.”

“... So, my name is Konrad what about you?”

“Also Konrad.”

“... Is that true?”

“Yes.”

“You’re another Konrad, that’s cool.”  
“Strange coincidence,”

“Yeah, so what brings you around here?”

“Hungry,”

“They make good sausag-“

“What will it take for you to leave me alone?”

“I don’t know, just tell me, tell me your real name, you can’t be another Konrad.”

“It’s Luanne,”

“That’s a cool name.”

“It’s not,”

“Well, I think it’s cool!”

“Look, I’m busy, can you leave me alone?”

“Are you sure? You don’t wanna make a friend?”

“I cannot figure out any way I can make myself clearer. Please leave me alone,”

“Ok, if you want to be in peace I’ll leave you alone.”

“Yes I do, very much,” Konrad stands and goes back to his original stool. At this point in time Zioh has finished tidying the stables and disposing of the waste and has entered back into the tavern to wash up and grab a bite to eat. He takes the meal Mariain has set aside for him and eats nearby her so he can still talk to her as she works, serving the last customer in the morning rush.

“Business is looking good this morning,”

“It sure is,”

“There’s many people,”

“Well, it is a special occasion,”

“That’s true but... it’s still many people. But I’ve done my duties for now.” he giggles “Duties, doo-dies,” laughing at his own poop joke, especially considering one of his main ‘duties' was cleaning up all the waste.

“Oh Zioh, you are mighty funny,”

“Oh! Thank you ma’am!” 

\---

Presphyra stands in front of the city’s magic shop, The Broad-brim. It seems closed however deciding to test her luck, for the second time today she knocks.

“Come in,” The voice of an aged woman beckons her inside. As she enters, she sees an elderly human woman and a young human girl as they shift through shelves of merchandise.

“Hello, does anyone here specialise in... magic, this is a magic shop I’m sorry I feel like I’m offending you.”

“A little, I am Maria, you must have heard of me yes?” Presphyra however, had not.

“Oh yes! Maria! How wonderful, you’re powerful, wow,”

“Yes, this is my store Where I help those uh,” She glances over to the young girl, “less gifted than I,” Presphyra nods her head in sympathy,

“Well, I was hoping you and your gift could bestow me some knowledge in these times, I awoke with this strange spell. It seems no one else can tell but on this hand there are these golden strings,” Maria’s eyes flicker to the strings themselves rather than the space Phyre had shown before catching herself.

“I’ve learned nothing about strings and you don’t seem to have any on your hands.”

“Like I said, they seem to be invisible-“

“Delilah, do you see anything?” the young girl looks up,

“Nope,” with a soft voice. Phyre however, refuses to back down. 

“Can you point me to anywhere that might be more knowledgeable?” 

“There’s not much about magic that I don’t know dear, if I don’t recognize what you’re talking about I doubt anyone else would.” 

“I see,” 

“... Yes, I’m glad we’ve solved that, so if you’re not here to buy anything, perhaps you should go.” 

“Good day to you, I hope you enjoy your holiday.” 

“Mm, good evening.” She exits and closes the door and begins walking in place for a bit easing her footsteps to emulate the sound of walking away and being eavesdropping on whatever conversation may happen inside. After a while she hears Delilah question Maria. 

“Mum, what was that all about?” 

“That uh, that string is binding that girl to a fate worse than death,” 

“What do you mean mum?” 

“She will die in seven days,” 

“Oh,” 

“But she may live, if she goes away from my front door,” Phyre bursts in, seeing no point in hiding anymore. 

“Was- Was all of that just a lie to- I’m confused. Please, I can tell you know something.” 

“I can’t guarantee to won’t die in seven days, but if you leave, you won’t die now so,” 

“Please Miss, I can offer you something, I can write a song for you, I just- I want to find out all I can.”

“There already is someone studying under me, I’m not a librarian, I’m not a charity, I am a store, buy something or get out,”

“I will buy your knowledge, I will give you all my money for you to tell me what you know about these strings,”

“Look, I’ve already told you, I know nothing about these strings.”  
“You’re the great and powerful Maria, how could you not?”

“If I know nothing about these strings, maybe you’ve been taking too much pixie dust,”

“Why does everyone keep saying that?”

“You are covered in it.”

“It’s glitter!”

“uh-huh ok,”

Presphyra heads back to the tavern with a huff. Meanwhile, at the tavern Mariain is collecting plates and cutlery left by the patrons. She stands before the shady woman Konrad spoke to before she is no longer eating and her plate, pushed away from her as though she has done.  
“You finish there sweetie?”

“No,”

“Just give me a holler when you’re done,” Mariain, put off by this strange behaviour, walks away at a brisk pace. She continues to clear the plates as she comes across the gnomeling man. Unlike the other woman’s plate this man’s plate was clean as though he had licked it thoroughly. Mariain smiles as she approaches and says “you enjoy the meal?”

“Yes, it was quite delightful,”

“Well, that makes me thrilled to hear, I’ll take that now” as Mariain reaches over to take the plate she feels a hand in her pocket and she looks over to the man staring him down intently and says “now sweetie are you sure you want to be doing that now?” She takes his small wrist and pulls it out of her pocket noticing, clutched in his hand is something shiny although she was not sure what.

“Sorry about that,”

“You mind explaining what that was about?”

“It worried me you might hurt yourself,”

“On what?”

“This,” The man opens his hand and reveals a metal square about the size of his palm. The clear confusion on Mariain’s expression leads him to explain “Kind of pointy.” 

“It is, I did not have that in my pocket,” 

“I found it in your pocket,” 

“All right sir, if you reach into my pocket again you will get kicked out of here, you understand that?” 

“Ok but you keep this,”

“You said it was pointy,”

“Keep this” Mariain takes the metal card and stashes it. Despite Mariain’s small height she was still taller than the man which caused the man to stretch up as high as he could to reach her ear and whisper “When you want to know say Togo” taken aback by this conversation and pretty creeped out Mariain gives a friendly smile and leave to do her other chores, the man also leaving the tavern.

While this is happening Presphyra is approaching the tavern, the impish man grinning as he leaves. She gives him a smile happy to see another happy person and to her surprise he approaches her,  
“Evening,”

“I’m glad you’re so happy what is the occasion?”

“I just met a new friend,”

“Oh, that’s lovely, you made a new friend? Who is this friend?”

“Um, some dwarf,” she furrows her brows at the response however pushes it aside,

“Well, I’m happy for you,”

“You want to be my friend too?”

“Oh, yeah sure! I’ll be your friend too!” he reaches something out of his pocket and hands it to her,

“Here is my Friendship Square,” and in his hand is a little metal rectangle. She takes it, grateful, feeling the need to get back she puts her hands in her pouch to take out some glitter she believed the bedazzled man would appreciate.

“Here is some friendship glitter,” and she takes a sprinkle before he interrupts her,

“Oh, I’m not into that, I don’t judge people for what they’re doing but I’m not into the drugs,”

“It’s just glitter!” she says exasperated

“Ok, if you want to know say, Togo” and he’s leaves once again. Presphyra calls out to his fleeting figure,

“It was lovely meeting you!”

Phyre re-enters the tavern, scanning the tavern she recognizes that the patrons seemed upset. Her new acquaintances weren’t busy so she approaches Zioh.

“What happened here?”

“Uh, what do you mean?”

“Everyone looks so upset,” Mariain next to him pipes up,

“Do they?” as the two look around they see happy patrons enjoying the breakfast, several of the salt and pepper containers having unscrewed lids.

“I don’t know how to tell you this but, everyone seems happy,”

“Ain’t nobody been sad after eating my cooking,” Zioh assures Mariain that this is true and her breakfast was wonderful. They do not convince the Elven woman; she walks to the back of the room while unclasping and instrument case she held onto her back; she pulled out a white violin and calls all attention to herself.

“Now everyone, I’m here to turn your frown upside down with a little impromptu concert.” One drunkard begins cheering obnoxiously while the others murmur among themselves, looking to Mariain the bar employee, she responds with a shrug. She plays an upbeat Jazzy song as she prances and twirls among the tables as people bob their heads. Mariain did not stop her, instead patting Zioh on the shoulder, he stops bobbing his head and looks over. 

“Zioh I’ve overheard some things about that girl, I’m not sure if she’s all right,”

“What did you overhear?“

“Well, I found out she’s not fully there, you know in the head, I didn’t want to say anything while she was here because that’s rude but she’s acting real weird there”

“She was acting a little unusual I mean everyone seems thrilled,“

They stop short the conversation as the song finished she exits with a gratuitous curtsy, making her way back to Zioh and Mariain.

“Well, thank you for that concert,”

“It’s nothing, anything to brighten up people’s day,”  
“I have some spare muffins, have you eaten breakfast?“

“Yes, I already ate today” The half-elf’s meek voice joins in

“It was nice to see you perform, but it wasn’t necessary,“

“The people seemed upset I-“

“They very much where not, ma-am,”

“It looked to me that something upset them“

“Well, I’m telling you now ma-am they were not upset at all“

“If I felt something had upset them then I want them to be happy, is that not natural?“

Zioh is gobsmacked, he points to the corner table that Konrad was sitting at,

“I will go now” he leaves the bar table, leaving Mariain to deal with Phyre. Konrad had been sitting in silence for several minutes, watching the people listening to the music when he catches Zioh approaching.

“Oh hey, what’s up?”

“Hey... Pres is weird,” He takes a seat across from Konrad, leading close and whispering, “She did this random performance and lectured me about ‘not understanding when someone is upset’ and, she was weird!” Konrad hums and nods his head listening.

“Yeah, a little but, it’s all right. She just wants people to be happy,” 

“I mean it’s nice to see she wants people to be happy, but I don’t know, it was just... weird.”

“I’m sure she doesn’t mean any harm.” Zioh looks at Konrad’s gentle smile and cheery disposition, mouth agape.

“You’re such a nice person.” Konrad looks down to the table, bashful, laughing into his fist.

“Well do you think we should find out what these strings are about? Did you find anything?”

“I was working at the stables so I didn’t but-… Pres went out to a magic store to find out.”  
Konrad looks over to Presphyra talking animatedly with Mariain who seemed to just be forcibly smiling and nodding along. Konrad stands to walk over,

“We should go ask her about it,” Zioh reluctantly follows behind.

Konrad waves to the two women as he approaches “Hey Presphyra, did you learn anything?”

“I met a woman called Maria, she wasn’t very useful,” her tone bitter before she catches herself and spins the conversation to be brighter, “But that’s fine she may have been having a bad day or something. She seemed to notice the strings, and yet she refused to tell me anything, pretending she couldn’t see them.” Zioh scrunches his face, pursing his lips as he intervenes,

“You say that Maria wasn’t useful?”

“Yeah, I did,”

“How?”

“She claimed to not know anything I was asking her and sent me out,”

“Perhaps she knows but isn’t telling us for our own safety?”

“So, we are better off not knowing?”

“Maybe I should talk with her, unlike you, I am her student.” He puffs up his chest a little at the statement. “Mariain could I have a little break to talk to my teacher?”

“You weren’t working anyway,”

“That’s fair, I’ll go to Maria, in the meantime-“

“I will come with you,” He had damaged the Elven girl’s pride, she would see this through.

“Can I come too?” For Konrad this was an exciting journey to spend time with his new friends. Mariain sighs,

“I guess I’ll come too.” she shouldn’t be the only one to stay and besides, a few minutes won’t hurt, right?

Presphyra began filling them in on the way to The Broad-brim. “When I was eavesdropping, she mentioned- I presume this is all lies because she called me out for eavesdropping afterwards but-“

“Have you considered not eavesdropping?”

“I wanted to know!”

“Have you considered being better at eavesdropping?” She takes a breath before she resumes,

“She mentioned that these strings are a curse, that we would suffer a fate worse than death which happens to also be death. I would not correct her after she cast me out,” As they reached the shopfront Zioh gestures to the door,

“In we go,” Presphyra however pulls back

“I feel like if I came in with you she would be reluctant to give useful information, she called me a drug addict.”

“You are covered in-” She cuts him off,

“Glitter!”

“Pixie dust,”

“Glitter! Sniff it, it’s glitter!”

“No! I don’t want to enable your bad habits!”

“No... It’s glitter,” Mariain ushers Zioh towards the door,

“Zioh, Let’s just go in now,” As the two enters the store Konrad stays behind next to Phyre, she looks up at him,

“Do you believe me?”

“Yeah I believe you,” Konrad offers a warm smile, Meanwhile in the shop Zioh bypasses all the perusing customers, making a beeline to the front desk. 

“Good morning Maria!” she hums in response “I was wondering something that requires your eyes to be opened,” 

“Zioh, you know I’m meditating,” 

“I know, but is there a possibility that you could not be meditating for about a minute or two?” under her eyelids, Maria’s eyes roll. “It’s kind of serious matter and-“ 

“Shouldn’t you be at work?” 

“My boss is here right now and she says-”

“Hello Mariain,” 

“Hello Maria,” 

“That I’m allow a little break, so in the meantime I’m trying to investigate something here,”  
“What’s wrong Zioh?” 

“I have strings around my fingers,” Her eyes shoot open in responses and she looks at the fingers in question before her eyes flicker, avoiding Zioh. “A person I know came in here earlier asking questions, she didn’t find out much so I thought I should try.” 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Zioh sees Maria cradling one hand in the other which strikes Zioh as odd until he remembers that the hand she is cradling is missing a finger.  
“I haven’t got a clue how to prove to you I have strings around my fingers but, they are there, I am seeing them. I thought to come to you because if anyone will know, it’ll be you.” 

“Zioh, I’m proud of all the work you’ve done here but I cannot help you with this.” 

“Do you know anyone who might? Or at least a book I can read?” 

“I don’t know who will help you, but there will be someone who talks to you or, reaches out to you but it’s not me. You’re on your own in this, I’m so sorry Zioh.” 

“Oh uh, ok, I’ll leave now.” he goes to walk out. 

“Zioh, look out for yourself.” Mariain opens the door, leading Zioh out first with her hand placed on the small of his back. The two step out, meeting back up with the others, the door behind them closing with a soft click. Mariain holding Zioh, Zioh’s eyes becoming acquainted with the cracks in the pavement.

Konrad studies their faces, “What happened?” Mariain meeting his gaze,

“It was ominous as heck in there,” Zioh picks up his head,

“She said nothing specifically but what I could tell with the things she said and I guess by how she looked, It’s not good.” This catches Presphyra’s attention,

“How did she look?” Mariain sucks in a breath,

“Girl, she looked more upset than I’ve ever seen her.” 

“She was upset?” With haste, Presphyra pulls out her violin and bow, Mariain and Zioh wide eyed as they watch her before swiftly trying to calm her down, Mariain holding her back from re-entering The Broadbrim while Phyre plucks strings, trying to play a tune. 

“Ma-am! Ma-am, ma-am please calm down! Please, please, please, please!” 

“No! I can’t let her be upset.” 

“No, it’s, it’s just, please calm down! We have more pressing matters at hand!” 

“I just want people to be happy,” 

“Well...” 

“Everyone should be happy!”

“That’s unrealistic! No offense, I mean it’s very inspirational” 

“If I see someone upset, then it’s not unrealistic to want to make them happy!” 

“I don’t think you playing some music will cheer her up!” 

“It’s worth a shot.” 

“I don’t think it will!” Presphyra struggles under Mariain’s grasp but her Elven frame is nothing under Mariain’s muscle as Mariain pulls her away. It became clear that she would not break free from Mariain’s grasp, Presphyra’s body going limp for Mariain to carry her away with ease. They walk together back to the park they found Konrad as Zioh recounts what happened 

“Well, she said that she couldn’t help, or she didn’t know who could help, but-“ realisation dawns on Presphyra,

“Wait, you said she doesn’t know,”

“What?” Presphyra unbuttons her blouse a bit and starts shuffling around in her bra. Zioh and Konrad instinctively look away as she pulls out a small, rectangular piece of metal, Mariain’s eyes light up,

“Oh, I also got one of those!”

“A man told me that if I wanted to know, I just had to say,” Mariain and Presphyra in unison,

“Togo,” The card emit’s a strange silvery light that grows until it’s about 30 centimeters in circumference before pulsing, the four of them are hit with a shock wave before everything goes black. A strike of a match is heard and a small flame flickers lighting a candle, and then another, and another and soon the light fills the room and the one who is lighting these candles has their face illuminated, revealing that same man from the tavern, to the confusion of Konrad and Zioh while maintaining the expectations of Mariain and Presphyra. He pays the four no mind as the continues to light more and more candles. The light reveals the room as empty except for a market cart that is closed, none of its windows open.

“Hey, how’re you going?” Konrad opens with what seems to be his signature saying,

“Good,”

“Excuse me, can you see these strings on my fingers?”

“I sure can,”

“What are they?”

“Strings,”

“But why are they there? How did they get there? Who put them there?”

“Well, they aren’t really there, see,” he waves his hand through them.

“Why are they there?”

“Um, well... The four of you have been chosen for an important mission,”

“What is that mission?”

“I don’t know if you guys are ready to know, I can get you a snack, I make a mean muffin,”

“If they chose us for the mission, we should know what the mission is,”

“I like muffins!” He opens a drawer in his market cart and reaches in letting out a burst of dust and handing the pastry he picks out to Zioh who inspects the muffin with a quick glance before shoving them into his mouth, enjoying the muffin that tastes surprisingly familiar.

“I’m glad you can appreciate my cooking,”

“It’s fantastic! Kind of like your muffins Mariain!”

“I’m sure I’m not the only person who makes cinnamon muffins,”

“This is a special recipe, just mine,” Zioh nods his head,

“So what were we chosen for?” 

“How to put this... This past week, six artifacts have been scattered across the coast, whoever wields those artifacts will have the power to defeat anyone who stands in their way and will be rewarded with a gift, anything their heart desires. You are a team to fight to get those artifacts. You’re not the only ones, and you will most likely die,” 

“Why would we want to get these artifacts if we know that?” Konrad was content with living,

“You don’t have to, but the others can’t claim the reward if you’re still alive,”

“Oh I see, I see, I see,” Mariain says with her eyes somewhat phased out, trying to process what this all means,

“So we will die, anyway?”

“It’s a fight to the death and the last one standing gets it,” Phyre states with a heavy heart,

“Exactly!”

“Will we have to kill each other?”

“No,”

“Oh thank god, that worried me,”

“You’re a team!” everyone releases their held breaths, a chorus of ‘that’s good’ filling the room.

“Teams are beyond your control and you’re stuck with them,”

“Oh well, at least I got my buddy, pal, Zioh,”

“And I got my pal Mariain!” There was still more questions that Presphyra needed answers to,

“The other teams, they have these same strings?” 

“Yes, they do,”

“Will they see ours and we’ll see theirs?”

“Yes you will, I’m afraid I can only answer one more question, this question can be the difference between living, and dying.” the four gather to decide, what would be the most beneficial question to them, Konrad leading the discussion.

“I think we need direction, where do we start?” 

“Like where the artifact is?” Zioh questions,

“Yeah that sounds good,” They turn back towards Togo,

“Mr. Togo,”

“Konrad,”

“Where would we go to find the first artifact?”

“Well, where else would you keep a powerful magic artifact then with the royal wizard?” he counts on his fingers, “Yep, I believe that’s all,”

“Well, thank you very much for your help,”

“Are we allowed to summon you again and ask more questions or was this one time only?”

“Well, the questions maybe, my role is actually this,” and with a flick of his wrist all the windows open, with items stuffed in, barely contained in the various shelves and drawers. a showy grin as “Whatever you need, I got it!” with a sign titling the store as ‘Glitter and Gold’. After perusing the goods and Presphyra’s intentional purchase of golden glitter in front of everyone else, Togo tosses over the sparkling vial and as Presphyra catches it they find themselves back in the park with Presphyra clutching a vial of glitter to their chest and a head full of a few answers, but a whole hell of a lot more questions.


	2. Infiltration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our friends are now in a battle with time to get this first artifact, they don't know who else is after it or how many people they will have to fight for it. All they know is that they need to infiltrate the castle which is much easier said than done. Especially if they have no idea what this artifact even looks like or what is does.

The wind brushes past, rustling the trees surrounding them, sounds of laughter and celebration taking over the city. Here they were back in Abjura, sitting in a park clearing. No more candles, no more pocket dimension, no more Togo. Konrad is the first to snap out of the daze that the sudden information overload had given the group.

“I believe we need to move as fast as possible, we should go to the castle now to retrieve this item,” Zioh however, is still fumbling with his words.

“We’re in a death match,”

“Which is why we need to go now, we need to do it before everyone else,”

“We’re in a death match,” Mariain rests a hand on Zioh’s shoulder

“When I woke up this morning I was not expecting this,” Mariain says with a sigh,

“I don’t wanna die,”

“I don’t think any of us want to die,” Presphyra absently traces images in the dirt before she interjects with,

“The question now is whether we go after the artifact now and risk death or go later and risk death,” Zioh responds while resting his head on Mariain,

“I mean I suppose no matter what we’ll be fighting at some point whether we take it first or later but it would be easier to get it first.” Mariain follows with a snort.

“Is everyone suggesting we waltz up to the castle and demand to see the royal wizard? Just be like ‘Hey give us your special artifact right there, we need that because we’re in a special magic death match, no one else can see these strings but they are there, let me tell you’,” 

“I could charm the guards and we could slip in,”

“Well, you’re mighty confident aren’t you?”

They leave the clearing and head back up the main street towards the castle, they pass The Broken Stool. Guards surround the area in front of the castle gates with guards and has decorations prepared for the night's festivities. There are two grumpy guards stationed in front of the gate, they are wearing the yellow tabards signifying they are with the royal guard and a chest plate. Presphyra scans the area looking for a different route into the castle however she only sees the possibility of over the gate which would have them caught almost immediately, especially considering that it was the middle of the day in the center of town. “Maybe we should wait until nightfall?”

“Tonight is the festival, there will be even more people at that time,” Presphyra refutes

“Even if we get in, what happens next?”

“... Find the Wizard? I don’t know! Togo gave me the same information as you!”

“‘find the wizard’? In this giant castle?”

“Why are you looking at me like it’s my fault?”

“You came up with this plan!” Sensing the rising tension, Konrad stands between the two women to offer some motivation.

“Hey, I think we should just go for it, we shouldn’t wait any longer because the longer we wait the more difficult it would be!” Presphyra ponders his word for a moment,

“Speaking of which, the more artifacts we obtain the more of a target we become, how do we hide that? I mean people would try to kill us constantly,” She however, is met with silence. “Ugh, ok well, I will go on ahead and try to work my charm on those guards, I know a bit of magic so I can charm one that way but the other I must do... manually,” and on that word she flicks her wrist, as she walks off Zioh leans to Mariain,

“What does she mean by ‘manually’?” 

“I’m not sure I want to know,” As Presphyra approaches, both guards stand to attention,

“Hello there, you working hard on the festivities?”

“I’m guarding,”

“That looks like hard work, you don’t get any breaks or anything?”

“No they,” He chuckles “They don’t give us any breaks, been working us thin this last month, it’s been awful.”

“You poor thing,” She applies a gentle touch to his arm and begins gushing, the first guard’s cheeks redden, the other guard tsked and turns his head away. Phyre, noticing the poor reaction hesitates, her grip tightens, and she swallows excess spit. She hums a tune under her breath trying to channel her magic abilities through to the second guard to charm him. The man however shakes off the spell without realising it was cast leaving her in a predicament. Presphyra takes a new approach, she traces a line up one of the yellow pinstripes of her blouse until it reaches the top of her buttons and she carefully unbuttons the first three. Guard 1 purses his lips to stop himself from smiling and he looks over to his co-worker who returns his look, disapproving.

“If you don’t have any business here I got to ask you to move on,”

“Well, you see I have business,”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“I’m here to visit a friend, now you may not know this but I am a woman of a magical craft and-,”

“You’re a woman of something.”

“I’m someone with magical abilities, and I’m here to speak with the royal wizard,”

“Do you have an appointment?”

“Yes”

“You don’t, we don’t take appointments,”

“The appointment is so exclusive that you don’t even know there is an appointment,”

“Nah, they tell us if we have to let anyone in, and they told us specifically not to let anyone in.”

As the other three are watching Presphyra flounder Zioh looks over to Mariain,

“Should we help her?”  
“You got any ideas?” Zioh ponders for a moment before digging into a pouch on his hips. He takes out a small piece of fleece holding it to his head, closing his eyes and rubbing it. He pictures the guard looking at Presphyra, annoyed, before imagining tiny white sun spots in his vision, still static but he makes them disappear just as fast making the guard blink back and rub his eyes, questioning what he saw.

_ Minor Illusion - cantrip illusion_  
_Duration: 1 minute_  
_You create a sound or an image of an object within range that lasts for the duration. The illusion also ends if you dismiss it as an action or cast this spell again._  
_If you create a sound, its volume can range from a whisper to a scream._  
_If you create an image of an object it must be no larger than a 5-foot cube. The image can’t create sound, light, smell, or any other sensory effect. Physical interaction with the image reveals it to be an illusion, because things can pass through it. _

“What’s wrong?”

“I- gimme a second” He turns and slips into the gate leaving Presphyra alone with the other guard. Presphyra looks over to the other guard confused but takes this opportunity to step a few centimeters closer to the one still there.

“Y’know, I know it’s bad of me, I was lying before, I’m not here to meet the wizard.”

“Shouldn’t lie,”

“But when I saw you, a need to approach you overcame me,” she drags a finger softly over his forearm, “to find out more, and I’m grateful for this moment to be more... alone with you,”

“Lady, uh, what’s your name?”

“Phyre,”

“That’s a lovely name,”

“Thank you,”

“I’m spoken for,” Presphyra’s hand abruptly stops, her eyes going wide and she pulls away from the guard. “I appreciate the attention, I do but uh, I’m a married man,” Presphyra needed a plan to backtrack everything, to abort mission.

“Oh, I’m so... Heartbroken, I thought we had something,”

“I don’t know how you got that impression, I just learnt you name, you don’t know my name,” She opens her mouth wide and gasps, hand clutching her chest, eyes tearing up.

“I didn’t need to, I knew that look, in your eye,”

“I wasn’t looking at you, Phyre I appreciate this but nothing will happen between us,” Presphyra looked down at her unbuttoned blouse, revealing a good portion of cleavage and back up to him, “Honey I’m not,” he gestures to her body.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, it’s ok, there is someone out there for everyone, I’m sure you’ll find someone.”  
Although from this distance they struggled to hear the words exchanged it became clear that Presphyra was unsuccessful, Konrad came over to help the situation. The guard looking over at the newcomer.

“Hey, how’s it going?”

“Hello sir,”

“So we kinda need to get in there, do you think you could let us through?” Sensing where this “plan” of Konrad’s was headed, Presphyra decided to bail out and make her way back to Mariain and Zioh.

“I’m a guard, my job is to guard people from getting in,”

“Could you please let us in?”

“Why do you want to get in?”

“There is something we need to find,”

“Ok, one of my jobs is to stand here and stop civilians from trying to rob the place which sounds like what you are trying to do so I will stop you?”

“Can’t you do me a favour?”

“I don’t recognize you,”

“Come on, we’ve met... Phil,” miraculously he says the correct name

“Wait, what oh... oh yeah I know you... Forgot your name though, I’m sorry. Meet a lot of faces but it’s good to see you again from the... barbecue?”

“Yeah,”

“Yeah?”

Yeah."

“Yeah, what was it again?”

“Konrad,”

“Yeeaahhh right Konrad! I remember, but I can’t let you in there,”

“Come on, we’re buds,”

“You admitted to going in there to take stuff,”

“No one else needs to find out,”

“I.. That’s my job, to stop people from taking stuff, what do you wanna take?”

“... I don’t actually know,”

“Let me get this right, my job is to stop people going in there and taking things, you want me to let you go in there and take things even though you don’t even know what you want to take?”

“... Yes,”

“We can’t just let you in, I don’t know what you wanna do but I think it’s something illegal but I can’t arrest you because you haven’t technically done anything yet,”

“I’m just gonna go,”

“Bye,” 

Zioh walks over to the guards a few minutes later with the plan of convincing them he was a student of the royal wizard, he was sent back just as fast when he assumed the royal wizard was a man, didn’t know her name and the guards were aware she didn’t have any students.

Grouping up once more they decide on a stealth approach and trail along the eastern wall until they found a section they could hop over with minimal attention. Konrad pulls out his grappling hook, swinging it with an expert throw and hooking it over the wall. He aids each person before climbing over himself. As they reach the top of the stone wall the see a fairly barren grass area with some tents, benches and chairs and a sparring pit. It was fairly unremarkable except for one thing, a black box-like structure the size of a small room lay in this training field. As they stumble over the fence, they see a guard patrolling the area, a seemingly very high ranking guard if the medal on his tabard is anything to go by. Presphyra channels her magic to create a burst of jazz music to appear in a crowded area to draw his attention away from them as they try to sneak out of view.

_Prestidigitation_  
_Duration: Up to 1 hour_  
_This spell is a minor magical trick that novice spellcasters use for practice. You create one of the following magical effects within range:_  
_You create an instantaneous, harmless sensory effect, such as a shower of sparks, a puff of wind, faint musical notes, or an odd odor._

A commotion immediately starts in the group as some react startled and glances around wildly for the cause, other people grooving to the chill beats, this works mostly. Zioh lays down in a ditch, Phyre and Konrad move behind some tents, Mariain however misjudges how well the shrubbery could hide her thick dwarven figure. He narrows his eyes and steadily approaches Mariain,

“Who said you could be in here?!”

“Uh,”

“We start tomorrow!”

“Oh, I’m very sorry, I got lost,”

“No, I’m sick of you all!- You weren’t meant to be here until tonight, we don’t start until tomorrow, how d'you get in?”

“Oh uh, Phil let me in,”

“... I doubt you’ll be able to make it past ‘the test’ but how about you just wait around until we start? You here alone?”

“I am Sir,”

“Ok, you come, you sit down in the chair, I think your first test will be not fucking anything up for three hours until we start.”

“Alright sir,”

“Now, I gotta take care of that Jazz music,” and he storms off towards Presphyra’s spell. With held breath the other three wait before slowly creeping out of their hiding spots and beckoning Mariain towards them to discuss what just happened. Zioh smiling ear to ear ready to announce his new plan.

“That guy thought Mariain was a recruit!”

“They sure did Zioh,”

“What if we pretend to be recruits?” Phyre perks up at this,

“That’s plausible, we should do that!”

“We can disguise ourselves so they don’t remember us being creepy,” Konrad pulls out a disguise kit.

“I can help with that too,” Presphyra points to her bag showing she also has a disguise kit,

“Mariain, you should stay here since they already have seen and expect you, are you alright with that?”

“I mean they said I must wait three hours, now I don’t really wanna do that but I guess I have to. My Mama’s gonna be so mad,”

“Do you have anything to entertain yourself with in the meantime?”

“I got some whiskey,” Presphyra nods in response while pulling out her kit along with Konrad. The kits contain hair dye and make-up along with some generic accessories. Presphyra gets started putting make-up on Zioh’s face trying to contour his puffy cheeks to give the effect of a different face shapes,  
“What are you doing?”

“We got to get rid of your cute cheeks,”

“... You think my cheeks are cute?”

“Adorable.” Meanwhile Konrad applies hair dye to each person’s hair, Zioh had selected the orange dye, Phyre took black and Konrad had a vibrant blue. As Phyre moves along to Konrad, she tries to give the opposite effect to Zioh, instead trying to airbrush his strong features. Once it was time to change her own face, she reluctantly began removing make-up from her face revealing the freckles and dark circles under her eyes. She looked notably different and simpler however she still had a natural Elven beauty about her. Mariain sits up at a bench and pulls out her bottle of whiskey while the other three once again pull out Konrad’s grappling hook and scale over the fence once again. They walk back around the Eastern wall and towards the front gate to see Phil and his partner still there.

“Hello there, sir! We are here because we are new recruits, we are early but we wanted to make a good impression, where are we supposed to go?”

“You don’t look very ‘guard material’”

“That’s why we are here, to learn,” Konrad interjects,

“Fair point, go on in,” The gates open and the courtyard becomes open to them, 13 guards are milling about, some training, some eating lunch. No one paying the three any mind. They see to the east is the segmented area, several guards standing at the front of it including the captain whom caught Mariain, they approach him. Next to the captain are two lower ranking guards talking among themselves, as the three approach the guard adjust their attention, the captain lets out a heavy sigh.

“New recruits?” They meet him with three eager yes’s, “You’re early,” 

“We wanted to make a good impression!” He makes a pained face letting a small groan slip out,

“... cool, do you just want to head in? You’re not the first people here so just head in.”

“Ok, thank you very much sir,” as they walk through the gate they are met with the familiar terrain of the tents, tables, fighting pit and large black box. Mariain still in the same position they left her, spread out on a chair with a bottle of whiskey in her hand. The issue is no longer about how they will get in, it was more about how to pass the time and Konrad is two steps ahead, already pulling out a deck of playing cards and flinging cards to each individual with expert precision.

They play a variety of games for the next hour; go fish; old maid; chase the ace; before the first person other than themselves enter.it’s a tall masculine, red-headed, half-elf, with a burn scar covering half of their face. Presphyra looks this new figure up and down and after deciding she likes what she sees, she waves him over. They nervously smile before making their way over.  
“Hello there, are you a new recruit?”

“Yes,”

“We’re new too, would you like to play cards?”

“I’m not very good with cards,” Phyre shuffles over and gestures to the seat next to her,

“That’s fine, I can teach you,”

“Sure I suppose, I have no money so I can bet though,” Zioh furiously shakes his head,

“Oh no, no, no, we aren’t playing with money, just for fun. I don’t have much money either.” at this response Jhan takes their place next to Presphyra, as she insisted. 

“It’s nice to meet you all,”

“It’s nice to meet you too stranger,”

“My name is Jhan,”

“I’m Zioh,” The rest of the team however had much different introductions in mind,

“My name’s Mary,” Mariain introduces herself.

“I’m Tobias,” Comes from Konrad.

“And I am Sarah,” Presphyra finishes.

“So what led you all to join the training program? You all seem like, alright off folk,” Phyre is the first to respond to Jhan’s question,

“I suppose I’ve always had a keen sense for justice, and I’ve wanted to hone my abilities so I could do more good in the world,”

“I just want to experience new things,” Zioh follows the lie-train

“My father was a guard, I thought I might follow in his footsteps,” 

“I wanted to try something new, it seemed like a good choice,” Konrad smiles with an arm extending, holding a new hand of cards.

“Well, I’ll might take you up on that offer of cards,” Jhan taking the offered cards, they resume playing.

After Jhan, people enter at a more regular pace over the next two hours, there is a trio of dwarfs, a young halfling girl in a gorgeous frock, there are people from the highest pillars of society. There is a man in a beautiful woven coat and a girl in rags. People from all walks of life. Nearing the end of the 3 hours there is around 20 people. Some people don’t pay the strange black block any attention and some seemingly actively avoid it. The others scan for other people with strings however see none. Konrad notices that same women from the tavern with grey skin and pink eyes. She walks in and glances over the crowd before sitting as fair away from everyone else as possible. Shortly after, the General returns with a with an elderly woman behind him clad in a robe and with a sigh he addresses everyone.  
The General walks down the lines pulling people out in a seemingly random order. He starts with the wealthy halfling girl and pairs her up with a human woman. He goes through about three more pairs before he pulls Mariain out and pairs her with Jhan. Next he pulls out Konrad and pairs him up with the pink-eyed women. A few more pairs down the line he reaches Presphyra, to her horror, paired with Zioh.

“Alright, Now that we have this underway everyone will have to hand over their belongings for the duration of this course, you will be given all the equipment you need at the beginning of each test, You may place your items over near the sparring pit.” Each person places their possessions in the designated area except Zioh slips out a pendant and keeps it on him. He gestures behind him to the two guard assistants who have a wagon of rucksacks.

“What’s in these bags will help you get through this trial, I suggest you take one, only one. Use the stuff in there wisely.” Each person takes a bag, looking through the bag they find, 3 torches, a blanket, a box of matches, quarterstaff, mace and small magical pendant focus.

“Is everyone satisfied with those items?.. Is everyone satisfied with their partner?.. Is everyone prepared to be here knowing full well that the guard is not to be held responsible for any injuries and/or death during the training?” He looks over to Captain Lang behind him who steps forward to address all the participants.

“Well then, since you’re ready, let’s begin,” She claps her hands together and suddenly each pair is transported to a new location.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought a nice detail would be adding a small spell description the first time a spell is used in the story. Tell me if you think it's good or not!!


	3. The First Test, Part 1 - Presphyra and Zioh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes have already been split off despite only just meeting, Presphyra and Zioh, Mariain and Jhan and Konrad and Luanne. This chapter will follow the trials and obstacles Presphyra and Zioh face in their first test to become Royal Guards.

As Captain Lang claps her hand a burst of white energy envelops the crowd, separating each group and transporting them into a foreign location. Presphyra and Zioh have to wait for their eyes to adjust to the dark area after such a bright light. As their vision returns to them they see they are in a stone corridor, two paths in front of them splitting off, a path to their left which bent off almost immediately and another to their right which follows down the straight path until they could no longer see the end. They take the curved path, which weaves and winds left and right in a jagged L shape which continues for about 50 meters until they come to an intersection with four separate paths. One to the far left, one to the left and forward, one to their far right and another to the right and forward. There seems to be no difference between the four routes except for the path that leads right and forward. It seems to result in a dead end. Presphyra however does not trust this abrupt end and leads Zioh down towards the wall. Presphyra reaches out a hand to touch the wall however halters at the last moment before pulling out the quarter staff they were given and hitting it against the wall. She taps it a few times, looking to see if the staff phases through, if the stone seems hollow and how the wall feels against the staff. Still not satisfied she puts the staff down, Zioh goes to turn and take a different path but she takes his arm before he can move very far. Reaching out her bare hand she touches the wall, feeling nothing, she pushes her hand against it and it begins to phase through. Pulling Zioh along with her, she walks through the solid stone. 

They come across a new hallway with two symmetrical paths in front of them, they both seem empty. Zioh looks around straining his dark vision, there is nothing, no monsters, no traps, it’s just empty. His hand clasps Presphyra’s tightly as they continue down the left path in silence. Soon enough down the path a left turn appears and although the straight road continues in results in a dead end only a few meters later. Presphyra tries feeling against the dead end once more, assuming there would be a similar trick like the last path however there is nothing but solid stone under her fingertips. Glancing around the corridor she touches along the edges looking for a button or trapdoor. Zioh takes the opposite side to her, feeling up the walls, stopping every so often to look behind himself at Presphyra and replicating her movements to no avail. They backtrack and take the left turn which turns in jarring, sharp angles until they reach a straight path leading as far as the eye can see. Just as they question how difficult this test was supposed to be they felt the ground beneath them rumble and crack, rapidly sinking before the floor beneath them crumbles away into a deep abyss. Phyre, feeling the sudden shift in the ground, leaps across to the solid landing in the direction they were headed. Zioh steps back a few steps before he could plummet to his death which was fairly easy seeing as he wasn’t as far in the corridor as Phyre was. The hole in the ground spans about a square meter leaving Phyre and Zioh no choice but for one to jump the gap to reach the other. Presphyra extends her arms, leaning towards the gap, nodding her head to Zioh, gesturing him to jump to her. Zioh tries to calm his heavy breathing with shaky hands before moving back to get a good run up. 

He begins his sprint and as he reaches the edge his hesitates for a split second before he takes the leap however that one moment was enough to throw off his trajectory causing him to flounder midair. Presphyra’s eyes track his speed and angle; following along his path and with her sudden realisation of the situation she grows frantic. She teeters on the edge, stretching her arms as much as she can safely do so, lunging her body forward. Zioh shuts his eyes tightly, gloved hands thrown out in front of him blindly; the only thing he knew how to focus on was the feeling of his stomach in his throat. Presphyra just grips his forearm as tightly as she can as the rest of his body lies dangling over the edge. The air tickles the soles of his shoes, pins and needles striking every little nerve screaming to be placed on solid ground once more. The sweat on Presphyra’s hands mixed with the fear entangling her heart has her breathing became heavier. Her own limber frame struggles to pull up Zioh’s much taller and heavier one however she grips onto him with both hands and take him up to a point where he can pull himself the rest of the way. The two of them sit next to each other in silence for several minutes, their eyes unfocused, bodies completely still until Zioh shuffles closer, reaching out a shaky hand to Presphyra who responds by wrapping her arm around his shoulder, guiding his hand to her chest and holding him as he relaxes in her grasp and steady’s his breathing.

Once they’re ready to continue on with their test, they come across a three-way-intersection, both of them are quick to scan for any other traps before choosing the path they follow. Although they come up empty, Presphyra’s keen ears pick up something else, a peculiar sound. She shuts her eyes, focusing on the noise. Zioh watches her, head tilted to the side as she walks back a forth around the room, resting her ear on the walls, checking different locations. She lingers at the entrance to the forward facing path. Zioh approaches, pressing his own ear against the cool rocky slope. That’s when he hears it, a whoosh from inside the walls. A current of water; or possibly a different liquid, travelling through pipes.

“Can you hear that Zioh? Perhaps if we follow the current, it would lead us to an exit. It must travel somewhere.”

“Yeah, I hear it, I think that’s a good place to start,” As they follow along this new pathway they keep an ear out, listening for any changes in the water’s flow and the distance between the pipes and themselves. As they progress the rushing current grows louder and louder, telling them they were headed in the right direction. When the next path spilt occurs they waste no time deciding which path is more strategic, no guessing games or songs to help them choose. They merely continue to follow along the listening to the pipes crescendo, paying no mind to the rest of the scenery or other senses they hold. A mistake they quickly come to regret as a large sheet of stone falls behind them blocking their way with an ear-splitting crash. Their bodies act on their own, jumping and turning to see what fell as another large stone wall drops approximately five feet in front of them this one however, being covered in spikes. Zioh estimates the spikes to be roughly 60 centimeters long, plenty to completely skewer the two of them easily. This was going to eventually be an issue seeing as the spikes were beginning to slowly close in on the two. Knowing brute force wasn’t an option for Zioh and Presphyra’s specific skill set Presphyra starts rapidly thinking of different strategies to get out. She looks over the mace they gave her, made of metal, sturdy, perhaps she could use it to hold between the two walls to stop them from closing? She compares the mace to the spike precariously closing in, the mace barely being any bigger. Zioh pulls out a quarter staff, much longer however, made of wood and would be quick to splinter and snap, not saving them any time at all. Their eyes race to spot any crack or crevice they can find in the walls surrounding them; a camouflaged button to stop their impending doom.

She spots a strange circular panel in the stone wall that seems out of place, as she touches it, it moves. She moves away the panel to find an iron shoot behind it with a long tube descending seemingly unrelated to the current that lead them into this situation. Grasping at straws she signals for Zioh’s attention and he wiggles his quarter staff down the shoot to feel for a button to no avail, the tubing feels to turn at an angle he cannot fit his quarter staff down. As they remove the staff she inspects it further, not understanding the purpose of the tube and hoping that if she does, she could find a way out. She smells something strange coming up the tube, a gritty, smoking scent she finds familiar but can’t quite place.

“Zioh do you know what that smell is?” once she moves away and Zioh leans over to get a whiff of this curious scent he jumps back and rubs his nose, sniffling.

“It’s gunpowder,” He says with a high-pitched sneeze following, 

“Maybe we could drop a match? The explosion might free us,”

“The explosion might kill us too,” But at this point the spikes were far too close for comfort and they had to decide quickly. She had already identified the shoot as being made from iron, which seemed promising because of her vague knowledge on that mineral being fairly fireproof. With no time left to spare she looks over to Zioh, the colour draining from her face as she offers a small nod. He shuffles through the rug sack, pulling out random items that they honestly did not need at this moment trying to spot the small box inside this giant bag filled to the brim. His chest tightens as it gets to a point where he is throwing torches and rope behind him to make haste when finally with his quivering hands he passes the matchbox over to Presphyra. She slides it open, several matches tumbling to the floor because of carelessness, her dainty hands taking one and striking it alone the side of the box to light it. The small flickering light seeming so frail, with just a small puff of air it could be extinguished, not today. She drops it into the slot and the tube lights up and a heavy whoosh follows the pipe back up. They hear a crashing explosion inside the architecture of the walls, rippling through its foundation, causing the surrounding walls to crumble, stopping the spikes and freeing their path. Despite this, said path was also crumbling away from the impact, including the floor beneath Presphyra and Zioh. They could not jump to safety, the floors too fragile, Zioh wraps his arms around Presphyra’s middle, his body scrunched as small as it will go, Presphyra wrapping her own arms shielding his head, hugging it tightly to her chest, the two bracing for impact as they begin their quick decent. 


	4. The First Test, Part 2 - Mariain and Jhan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes have already been split off despite only just meeting, Presphyra and Zioh, Mariain and Jhan and Konrad and Luanne. This chapter will follow the trials and obstacles Mariain and Jhan face in their first test to become Royal Guards for The Imperium.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, this chapter came up much later that the fortnightly system I was going with, this is because I was participating in NaNoWriMo. I was actually working on this for NaNoWriMo and I ended up successfully writing 50k words for my first NaNo!! Woo!! I also have up to chapter 10 written with a bit from chapter 11, 12, 26.5 and 30-something (I got excited about certain scenes) I'm expecting to update on a more weekly basis until I catch up to the current campaign which I cannot wait to show you because some exciting stuff is happening.

Following the clap from Captain Lang Mariain finds herself enveloped by a bright white energy along with her new acquaintance, Jhan. As they adjust, they find themselves in very new surroundings; it seemed they were in a dungeon. The walls, floor and ceiling made of cobblestone with murky water at their feet. As Mariain takes a smell of the overpowering new environment she realizes, this is no dungeon, this is a sewer. 

“Oh gosh, I wasn’t expecting this when I signed up, what do you suppose this is all about?”

“Maybe they’re testing us in different environments to see if we have what it takes?”

“I think we can do it!”

“I think so too Jhan,” In front of them lies their first choice for the evening, a path leading straight or a path diverting to the right. Neither of the two had ever been in a sewer so they didn’t know any tips or tricks to navigate them. They looked over the doorways together and listened to the walls but nothing helped them understand where to go, it wasn’t until Jhan shared his ancient navigating knowledge did they have any guidance on which way to go next. 

“If you ever have to pick a way choose right, because it’s the right way.” They follow along the right corridor, an uninspiring corridor which spans a great distance with no new details or change in direction for about ten minutes. Jhan halts, placing a hand in front of Mariain to make her stop too,

“Stop, I can hear something in the walls, there’s- somethings not right here. Let’s just look; I think they’re trying to do something here.” As the two of them scout the immediate area they come up empty, wondering if there was something to being with. However on cue, just as that thought invades their mind the flooring beneath them crumbles away, Mariain instinctively stepping back to safety, Jhan however jolts at the feel of the floor underneath him giving way and tips forward, into the hole. Mariain quickly grabs onto Jhan with a bone crushing grip around his hand which saves him but also causes him to let out a yelp of pain, she loosens her grip before pulling him back up to safety.

“I knew there was something off,” They discuss their next plan of attack, jump over and keep going, or return the way they came? After going back and forth, they conclude that because of the trap and the fact they were in a test it seems like they are going the correct way and should continue down their current path.

“Alright then, I’ll go first and then when you jump I can catch you,” Jhan responses with a nod. Mariain doubles back a few feet, lowering her body to the ground before sprinting at her top speed, leaping over the chasm and landing on her feet only a little shaky. She turns back towards Jhan flashing them a grin and a thumbs up, they gives a smile of their own before imitating Mariain’s previous actions of backing up to run and jump but as they run up they hesitate and stop before the jump. Jhan eyes the descent, mouth dry and looks backup towards Mariain shaking their head. 

"I... I can't,"

“Come on Jhan I know you can do it! We're going to join the guards together right?"

"Yeah,"

"We can get through it together! Just one jump and I'll be right here," Jhan swallows and backs up once more, running towards Mariain and jumping at the very edge of the available floor, arms out in front of them, eyes scrunched tight until they find themselves on the floor, Mariain underneath with a oof! 

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry I-"

"You did it!" Mariain smile is radiant sunshine as Jhan picks themselves up and Mariain follows, as they continue down the path before them. Slowly they see the walls shift into wood, starting with small panels before it transitions completely. Mariain eyes the wooden panels, feeling and knocking on them, eyes squinting, scrutinizing her surroundings as Jhan pipes up,

"Maybe this means we'll be heading out of the sewers soon?" 

"Hopefully but in my personal experience wood holds smells better then stone," the water at their feet continues even once they hit a strangely placed dead end, 

Mariain begins to feel around the dead end but cannot find any notches or buttons or cracks however Mariain also finds that the sewer water they have been treading along still continues under the wall. Mariain knocks on the wall of wood hearing that it is hollow, she tries to reach under the crack and pull it up but the wood won’t budge; she looks over to Jhan.

“We could just knock it down,”

“How?”

“Well, we have these here maces, and I am quite strong,”

“Yeah, you do look tough,”

“My Papa left me a big war hammer, I can swing it around real easy,” Jhan looks over at their own arms, resembling twigs but Mariain assures him to leave it to her and she takes her mace while Jhan hands her a second one. Dual-wielding these two maces Mariain beings twirling the maces in her hand before hacking into the wood, one arm after the other. Pieces of wood splintering and flying out of the way. 

She makes a mace sized hole in the wall. Peering through she identifies the path continues however the terrain switches back to cobblestone. She continues to pummel the wall with her two maces until it leaves a decent sized hole. She grips the inside of the hole, attempting to snap and pull at the wall with brute strength and with a loud crack the wood fractures and one after another she yanks out the pieces until her and Jhan can easily fit through. Jhan offers Mariain applause and a toothy smile as she gestures him to follow her through the newly formed hole. Soon enough they come across a new intersection. A staircase headed up and away from the trailing sewage water and another heading down.

The path headed down is flooded with a current of water and the smell is permeating even more powerful than the previous level, a grimace makes its way onto Mariain’s features and Jhan attempts to plug his nose. They discuss their next choice, the obvious option seemed to go upwards where it is less damp and smelly however this was a test and that convinced Mariain that the royal guard was using this as a chance to test their trainees in different foreign environments. Before deciding the path, to journey through they inspect the different routes and although they see nothing, Mariain hears a very odd sound coming from the downstairs route, the sound of birds chirping. To their knowledge birds don’t make their home in sewage system so perhaps this is a sign as to which path is the expect one to proceed on. This to Mariain’s disappointment solidifies which path they should follow, despite the powerful smell and the necessity to wade through disgusting water reaching her hips. On a positive note there didn’t seem to be and floating chunks in the water as they step down, soaking their shoes and socks. As they traveling down the path, a bright light appears before them, the possibility of freedom, of the outdoors with gentle chirping leading them elsewhere. They follow this light until it becomes bigger and bigger. enveloping their vision.


	5. The First Test, Part 3 - Konrad and Luanne

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes have already been split off despite only just meeting, Presphyra and Zioh, Mariain and Jhan and Konrad and Luanne. This chapter will follow the trials and obstacles Konrad and Luanne face in their first test to become Royal Guards. However, the two seem unable to get along, will the trials be what test them this round, or will it be each other?

Following the clap from Captain Lang Konrad finds himself enveloped by a bright white energy along with his new acquaintance before being shoved into a new dark surrounding that neither him or his partner were prepared for. Something however catches his eyes, or more accurately doesn’t. Luanne’s usually piercing pink eyes were nowhere to be seen. He would assume the slight glow would offer a light but alas, they did not. This could also be his inferior human vision at work since no matter how his eyes may ‘adjust’ he still struggled to see even the faint outline of the woman a meter away from him. As Konrad goes to take a step closer, she swiftly takes another back away from him.  
  
“Can you see anything?” The woman sighs, almost annoyed that Konrad even spoke to her.  
  
  
“Give me a moment,” She rummages around her bag before pulling out a torch and lights it, illuminating the tunnel and revealing her face to Konrad along with her steely grey eyes. They appeared to be underground judging by the dirt walls and floors.  
  
“Should we follow it?”  
  
“No, lets stand here for two hours, yes of course we should follow it,” She takes long strides, walking quickly which Konrad struggles to comfortably keep up with however he forces himself to do so because if he fell behind he would be left in darkness, and lose his new friend’s company. Because of the brisk pace set, they come to their first obstacle, a cliff side that Luanne looks over, pondering a method of action before deciding that the only option was down the 50 foot drop. Looking around the chasm there also seems to be many other platforms both above the duo, more entrances to other tunnels. She looks over to Konrad, arms folded, waiting for him to do something. Konrad however is unsure about the whole situation.  
“I don’t know if it’s safe to jump from here,”  
  
“Well, my idea is for you to jump and see if it’s ok, if you don’t like that come up with your own.” Konrad, reluctant to fall to his death, looks over the area. The next platform around 30 meters away isn’t possible to jump to either. Upon inspection Konrad does find something that could prove useful to their endeavours.  
  
On the ground in front of them, just on the edge of their safe platform there is five rectangular buttons.  
  
“Hey there are some buttons here, do you think they might be useful?  
  
“No, I think they would place buttons in front of this gorge for decoration.” Konrad turns back to the button sensing the dripping sarcasm as he looks over the identical button pressing the first one he sees. Immediately following this the earth beneath them quakes as a shifting of gears clinks into place and the platform they are on moves approximately three meters to the left, taking them that little bit closer to the platform the lies now only 27 meters away.  
  
“I got us closer,”  
  
“Do you want to jump now?”  
“Uh, I’m pretty agile but I don’t believe I could make that,”  
“I probably could,”  
“Well, ok if you could,” Konrad gestures towards the platform over, Luanne offers no extra movement.  
  
“I don’t want to,” Konrad turns to press the last button, following this a panel opens up above him, a long length of hempen rope falling to the ground next to him. Luanne takes the rope, pulling the length through her hands in an effort to estimate its length. Placing the rope down she pulls out a quarterstaff and a mace and pummels into the quarterstaff, breaking it up into smaller pieces, tiny splinters flying in many directions while Konrad attempts to shield his eyes.  
  
“Are you having fun there?”  
  
“No. I’m in a pit, I don’t know the way out and I’m stuck with you, It’s not great.”  
  
“Well, I enjoy your company,”  
  
“Do you?”  
  
“Yeah, we’re getting to know each other,”  
  
“All right fine, lets ‘get to know each other’ what are you doing in the royal guard, Konrad?”  
  
“Just felt like it,”  
  
“Sounds like bullshit,” she punctuates with one like whack into the quarter staff, collecting all her jagged stakes she has made and tying them onto different areas of the rope. With a smile, Konrad turns to press the third button which was a notable mistake as floor rumbles once again leading the two further upwards, making there drop below significantly more lethal. Luanne abruptly stopping her work on the rope to give Konrad a pointed stare.  
  
“Here is the situation Konrad, I don’t need you and if you don’t make it out of here then oh well, you’re out of my hair, bye.”  
  
“Oh, bye I guess?” She swings the rope towards the nearest Platform and the sharp pieces of wood dig into the dirt as the rope coils around giving a sturdy hold to the rest of the rope as she prepares to jump from the ledge. Backing up to prepare for a good run up, she gives a smug smile, Konrad stands to move out of her way, still teetering precariously on the edge of the platform. In her sprint past Konrad she lunges down but the moment her feet leave the safety of the ground Konrad also jumps, wrapping his arms around her body and latching onto her back. They plummet together as she grips the rope, swinging mid-air, her eyes wide in shock and mouth agape, dumbstruck for a few good moments before she yells at Konrad to get off her as she shakes her body to remove Konrad from her. Konrad however is as reluctant for death as the next guy and keeps his hold on Luanne which despite her best efforts ends up succeeding for now.  
  
“Get off me!”  
  
“Come on, we’re supposed to be a team!”  
  
“We are not a team! I will win, you are a parasite!”  
  
“A good-looking parasite,” he wiggles his eyebrows, despite her inability to see this eye-brow waggle the tone in his voice was enough to fluster her for a split moment before she regains her composure. She shifts her weight to adjust their direction as she swings gracefully down to the ground, sticking the landing with Konrad, clinging desperately, looking slightly pathetic, on her back.  
  
“You can off now,” she says through gritted teeth. Konrad hops off her back, petting the top of her head, feeling the solid nubs of her horns underneath her hood. “Do that again and I will stab them through your eyes.” Konrad backs up with an apologetic grin. A new corridor is set out in front of them and in this moment of peace Konrad takes the time to run his fingers through his messed up hair. He shifts through her pockets, a deep crease in his forehead forming when he cannot find his hand mirror and comb. Remembering that The Imperium had confiscated their belongings he sighs, slumping his shoulders, and he runs up to catch up to his partner which inevitably ends up with her picking up her own pace to keep a good distance between them.  
  
This becomes somewhat of a game of cat and mouse to Konrad as each of them alternate speeds to catch up or get away from the other. Luanne’s jaw clenches, her fists rolled tight into her palms each time Konrad insists on catching up, his bright naïve eyes and trusting heart refuse to take no for an answer, even when- no, especially when the ground beneath them splits and shakes, first a quiet rumble. Konrad’s eyes follow the cracks to Luanne’s figure as her harsh steps continue to aggravate the ground, her own eye’s steely grey and stuck facing forward, making a bee-line to whatever destination she believes is at the end until suddenly there is no longer a ground beneath Luanne’s feet at all. Konrad however has his focus solely on the woman in front of him so the second the ground cracks under her feet he sprints, catching her hand as she begins her descent. His feet plant firmly beneath him and his hand grips hers, first one and then the second. Staring down at the tiefling women he just met he sees the inky blackness beneath her, his stomach flipping over and over but still gripping her tightly as he attempts another one of his classic charming smiles.  
  
“I’ve got you,”  
  
“You’re not supposed to touch me,”  
  
“Too late now, if it wasn’t for me you would have fallen,” and through gritted teeth she replies,  
  
“I suppose you’re somewhat useful,” Konrad takes this as a compliment as he pulls the woman back up and like the gentleman he is, aids her to her feet. She immediately takes two large steps back from him once she regains her footing, crossing her arms and looking away to the ground. “I can make a jump I just, I didn’t realise it was falling. I was distracted by you, and your… annoyingness.” and without another look she turns and pounces over the edge and lands on the other side with a roll, “See, I can jump,” Konrad offers a small applause before jumping over himself, a little rocky, but enough. “Well, if you’re not dead, then maybe I can use you to catch me, but I don’t think you will make it through all of this Konrad.”  
  
“I will, don’t you worry about that,”  
  
“They said they only take the best,”  
  
“We are the best together,” She sighs and walks away, the cavern in front of them filling with light.


	6. The Sparing Pit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I totally lied and said I would update weekly. Well in light of the Corona virus maybe I actually will this time. Sorry!

This new bright light approaches each of the duos and leads them all into a large, strange room filled with arch ways, different pair's exiting out of each one including our own respective duos; Presphyra and Zioh; Mariain and Jhan and Konrad and Luanne who arrive within a minute of each other. Each archway appears to be different portals to different realms, some leading to underground labyrinth’s and others, planes of scorching flames and darkness. In the center of the room is high spire with a platform at the top, ropes knotted into nets ascend from the ground to this platform. Two teams are already running up to the center of the room where six people are already attempting to climb, some successful, others left in a tangled mess, attempting to reach the top platform, the details of which are unknown to those down below. Processing their surroundings, Presphyra leads Zioh into a sprint towards the middle, Zioh managing to get an extra jump onto the climbing cord giving him about a meter head start while Presphyra starts her climb from the bottom.  
  
Mariain, despite being later than many of the other participants on the current obstacle, her physical prowess quickly leads her to gain on them. Throwing her body weight side to side, and pulling her weight up as she clutches the rope in her fists and aiding her far less confident companion, surpassing many others until they reach the top of the spire, surpassed only by one other duo.  
  
Zioh is doing fairly ok in climbing, he isn’t a particularly great climber but he isn't too fussed about that due to the many people behind them and the fact some people haven't even gotten out of their respective archways yet. Looking behind his shoulder he finds Presphyra, still floundering at the bottom, struggling with the constant bobbing of the ropes and having trouble trusting the material she needs to put all her weight on. Sympathizing with her leads him to climb back down to help her untangle herself, they both begin a slow pace ascending the ropes, Zioh aiding her, telling her where her hands and feet should go, ensuring she keeps her balance.  
  
By the time Konrad begin to run towards the mound his own partner is already a third of the way up. She had leap and scaled past each opponent, jumping from the ropes to get that extra bit of height in as little time as possible. She turns to see Konrad still at the bottom and with a piercing glare from her steely eyes she yells back at him to hurry up before they lose. Konrad despite him lagging behind a fair bit, he does managed to catch up just as Presphyra and Zioh reach the top. As he looks around the platform there is only one object there that the others are somewhat dumbfounded by, a crate with an off turned lid. Luanne pushes her way passed pulling out several mustard yellow cloths. They are tabards, the uniform of the royal guard, she shuffles through, pulling out various sizes, leaving the discarded ones on the floor around her until she finds one she is satisfied with and walks away. Konrad picks up each tabard, folding them all in a neat pile despite that the crate was really just a sea of haphazardly thrown in articles of clothing, as each of the others look through to find one that would suit their own build.  
  
Soon enough people begin filing in, selecting their own tabards and after another hour of waiting for two more of the groups to arrive the general appears in front of the small crowd to address them.  
  
"Congratulations, those that are here have made it, and those who haven't might be dead. We'll check, but it doesn't matter, right now you've passed the first step but there are many more steps. We are going to get you out of here so you can all rest up for the night. Anyone hurt? Broken bones? Stabbings?"  
  
"Stabbings?"  
  
"We've had stabbing cases on the net before. Anyways, we'll lead you out, get some dinner and go to bed, you will all be woken at six AM tomorrow so prepare, no you cannot enjoy the festivities tonight, we are working, we are not celebrating." With another blinding white light they are transported back to the courtyard they were all in previously, the sounds of music, laughter and children playing invading their tired, weary bodies. Delicious food wafts over the tall stone fence but alas, that food was not for them. The benches laid out held soup and bread; there truly were no festivities to be had for the trainee's.  
  
\---  
  
Promptly at six AM, as they were warned, a blaring alarm rings out jostling everyone from their slumber. In one tent Mariain begins to stretch her arms, rub he eyes and scratch her bum. As she looks around with her bleary vision she sees Konrad's partner; Luanne, already ready, awake and leaving the tent. Mariain starts to feel along her facial hair, making sure it looks nice and respectable. Presphyra next to her is running her fingers through her hair, getting rid of any tangles and pinching her cheeks to add redness without the aid of her confiscated make-up. As Mariain exits Presphyra stays back for a few more moments, pondering her lack of sleep or dreaming which; is normal for an elf like herself, but in light of yesterday, with the strings still attached and her immediate surroundings. It confirms what Togo had told them. With a frown she makes her way to her feet, crouching in the tent before she opens in up and begins her leave, but not before applying a wide smile to her face as she greets the day.  
  
In the other tent Zioh awakes thrashing about, eyes wide open and he sit up quickly with his hand over his heart. He takes his time to breath as the alarm sirens up and down. Konrad staring at Zioh, arm holding him up as he leans his body away from Zioh before he offer a small smile and a extended arm as he helps Zioh up and leads him out to breakfast.  
  
The Captain and General are sitting at a small table a small distance away from the two long tables they are more familiar with. The tables set again, with bread, soup and water. The food however does look fresh and warm and the four, although some of them having more refined tastes, cannot find it in them to complain, just happy to have something to eat in front of them in that moment.  
  
Presphyra looks for a friendly face to be-friend her eyes settle of the frame of the halfling girl eating next to her partner; a tall human women. Presphyra had seen the two around a few times before. The halfling has a youthful appearance; she seems to barely be an adult with her strawberry blonde hair tied in two plaits. She is wearing a deep green dress with her mustard tabard over the top. As Presphyra dishes out a plate of her own she takes a seat next to the halfling.  
  
"Hello there I am Sarah, It's very nice to meet you, what are your names?"  
  
"Oh hi, my name is Hannah and this is Sophelle," Sophelle, the human next to Hannah offers a grunt in response.  
  
"So why are you two joining the royal guard? What are you hoping to get out of this?" Hannah is the first to reply.  
  
"Well my dad was in the guard and I just thought I could follow in his footsteps and help people,"  
  
"That's interesting, if you succeed will you be working alongside your father?"  
  
"Oh, he already retired,"  
  
"Oh that's unfortunate but it's good your follow after him while you're still so young. What about you Sophelle?" The human women hesitates, eyeing Presphyra before giving her response.  
  
"I was requested to join, I was given a scholarship,"  
  
"You must be very good at what you do then,"  
  
"Yes, I accidentally won the royal sparring contest,"  
  
"…How do you accidentally win a sparring contest?"  
  
"Wrong place, right time. Although, none of the people in the contest were very good to begin with."  
  
"Well I suppose it's rude to ask all these questions and not tell you about myself. I personally am very excited to start; I'll get to meet new people, new faces, travel around. It all seems very fun."  
  
"Yes, The Royal Guard is great for meeting people, you see all the townspeople you protect and you get to go all over the place,"  
  
"Your father must've had many adventures and stories didn't he?"  
  
"Yes he did, I'm also excited to get started but this food here is a bit of a downer," As she looks down grimacing at the meal in front of her, Zioh swoops in, taking a seat next to Presphyra, chomping down on his bread dunked in soup.  
  
"This is some really good food!" He says somewhat muffled by talking with his cheeks full of his meal. Presphyra lets out a small snort at his display before catching herself and turning to introduce Zioh.  
  
"This is my partner Zioh, Zioh these two lovely ladies are Hannah and Sophelle."  
  
"Hi, I'm Zioh, I like food,"  
  
"Nice to meet you, if you like that food maybe when we get out of training you can come to my house and I can cook you up a meal." Zioh halts stuffing his face at the prospect of more food, the sun catching his blue eyes as they glimmer with anticipation.  
  
"That sounds great!"  
  
"I mean this food isn't bad, I don't want to upset the cooks, it's just not much,"  
  
I guess for me food is food, I like all foods, unless it's burnt, I would never appreciate burnt food,"  
  
"Most people wouldn't,"  
  
\---  
  
Mariain after taking the set out ladle and pouring herself a full bowl of soup, she walks over to take a seat next to Jhan, sitting by their lonesome.  
  
"Good morning Mary!"  
  
"How are you doing this fine morning?"  
  
"As good as expected, the food isn’t great but it kind of reminds me of home, are you excited for today? I'm not sure what they are going to throw at us,"  
  
"Whatever it is I'm sure we can handle it," Jhan offers a toothy grin in response,  
  
"Where are you from Mary?"  
  
"Well I lived with my father in Bronzmit."  
  
"I've never been there, I heard that the top and the bottom are so far apart that you can't even see the bottom from the top,"  
  
"Yeah, well that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but they are very far apart,"  
  
"That sounds nice, why'd you end up here,"  
  
"Well my father, he tried to follow in my grandfather’s footsteps, in a guard position, not this specific group but a different one. He ended up getting real hurt and couldn't anymore,"  
  
"I'm sorry to hear that,"  
  
"It's fine, he's much happier in his current leather-working position, he always said he hoped one of his children would follow his footsteps and both of my brothers joined that guard, I was hoping for something a little different." Despite Mariain's usual honesty in her conversations, she felt due to her situation and motivation for being here, she needed to falsify as much of her life as she could. Although she may not be the most practiced liar, the words seemed to flow out from her lips naturally with Jhan believing every word, nodding along to her story.  
  
\---  
  
As Konrad gathers his soup he sits down, alone a few meters from his teammate; Luanne. He doesn't touch his soup, opting to stare as Luanne as she slowly brings the spoon to her lips over and over, too invested in her meal to notice. As he attempts a small wave she continues to not pay any attention to Konrad, whether it was on purpose or she was genuinely oblivious is unknown. Konrad, unable to take this silent treatment takes his plate and shuffles closer to her until he is directly next to her. She looks up; startled, a moment of recognition crosses her face, leaving her with a deep frown and scrunched up nose.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Do you mind if I have a seat next to you?" She sighs, looking away from him, refusing to meet his gaze,  
"Free table," He offers a smile in exchange, not that she noticed it, as he begins eating next to her, attempting to make small talk.  
  
"Did you have a good night?"  
  
"I slept well,"  
  
"That's good, that's good. So what's your name? It isn't Luanne,"  
  
"Why should I tell you?"  
  
"Well, if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be here right now," Her eye’s narrow, the fist clenching her cutlery tightening as she spits her response.  
  
"Usually I wouldn't give people like you the time of day, but since you're going to find out my real name sooner or later. My name is Keya," Konrad, like usual, pay’s no mind to her hostility.  
  
"That’s a pretty name,"  
  
"...Mhm,"  
  
"You excited for today?"  
  
"Yeah sure, I love being brutalized and challenged for pointless pursuits,"  
  
"It'll be alright, we got each other’s backs,"  
  
"I do not have your back; I want that firmly established that I don't have your back,"  
  
"Well, I'll still help you,"  
  
"Good to know. I didn't need help, I would have done fine yesterday,"  
  
"Well what happened, happened and, your welcome." Keya begins to eat her soup while maintaining unblinking eye-contact with Konrad, glaring daggers directly into his eyes, his ever present smile still glowing.  
  
Soon enough the breakfast is interrupted by General Desmos stepping in with his loud, booming voice capturing every individual’s attention.  
  
"Alright, listen up. You made it past the initiation yesterday and you should take a second to congratulate yourself for that, second over. Today we will impart the basic information of our institution so that everything will run sharply and we will test your skills in battle to see how you can improve. Sound good? As of this morning you are all officially cadets but those of you who survive this week will move up to be guards. This week's course is designed to test you physically and mentally. You need to be strong of heart, strong of will, strong of mind and strong of body. You will also need to prove your loyalty, although it is your job to protect your people, if you first protect your partner they will in turn protect you and of course above both of those the Imperium's first job is to serve the King. Now Captain Lang and I are going to prepare the abjuration so you don't all kill each other while sparring. Once you are all finished eating make your way over to the fighting ring and we will begin." The General turns and behind him, Captain Lang follows towards the dirt sparring pit, whether these people intend to narrow down the applicants to a specific number or train as many to their standard is unknown to the twelve remaining applicants but all this talk of death and dying is enough to make anyone a little bit wary about the situation. Presphyra leans over to Sophelle, to joke,  
  
"Sounds like a sparring competition, hope I'm not set up against you,"  
  
"Yes. You probably don't want to be," Sophelle's stoic demeanor barely changing, Hannah pipes up  
  
"Don't worry, I'm not too good with fighting,"  
  
"Neither am I."  
  
"Do you think we'll be fighting with the weapons they gave us?" Zioh asks, nervous.  
  
"Probably, I think so."  
  
"I'm not good with weapons,"  
  
"Neither am I," and with that, each of the recruits begin to move towards the ring, prepared for the next activity they have prepared. The sparring pit was a large circle of dirt surrounded by runes and filled in a strange red powder that Presphyra concludes is part of a warding spell, she assumes by General Desmos's last description on how everything is set to happen, that the spell is set to ensure no one is fatally harmed in the pit. Each participant lined the edges of the circle, like a roundhouse theatre ready for a show, except this was a fight. General Desmos sized up the twelve remaining trainees, scanning the ring with a thick scowl that is seemingly burnt onto his face.  
  
"Alright, would anyone like to volunteer to go first?.. No one? Alright, I'm going to start picking at random then." He points over to Hannah and Sophelle followed by Konrad and Keya. “You two duos will be up first, whoever succeeds goes onto the next round. Rules are you can only use what we have supplied to you, in other words, the mace, quarterstaff or magical focus. You may restock anything you may have lost or broken in yesterday's trial.”

Hannah steps into the ring with her mace and Sophelle with a quarterstaff. Keya takes a new quarterstaff after she pounded her former one into small pieces the previous night, Konrad takes a mace. Konrad is the last of the four to step into the ring, once he crosses the red root powder begins to shimmer with magical energy.

"Now that you're in no one can leave until the fight is over, good luck." Almost instantly when General Desmos finishes his sentence, Konrad's partner, Keya leaps towards Sophelle, swinging her quarterstaff down. Sophelle however, had her eyes trained on Keya from the start, ready to jump out of the way of her attack and successfully dodges the blow. Hannah, a bit startled at how sudden the fight began impulsively strikes back at Keya with her mace. Keya's eyes still trained on the trajectory of his own quarterstaff whooshing past her target, does not register Hannah's attack as the hard metal strikes against her back, knocking the air out of her lungs, she grunts in pain. Konrad runs towards the halfling girl in response, taking his mace and swiftly whacking it against her side, a strike bound to leave a bruise. Sophelle side steps Keya, using her quarterstaff to get some swift revenge on Konrad, landing a hit; not as hard as she would've liked, against his stomach.  
Keya refuses to back down, she started with Sophelle, she will finish them. She successfully hits Sophelle this time with a grunt, crashing the quarterstaff to Sophelle's chest, pushing her to the ground. The tall human woman spluttering and coughing from the attack, barely hanging on much longer. Hannah, seeing the threat that is Keya, leaps forward, bringing her mace down, hitting it against Keya's shoulder. Despite her tough demeanor Keya leg's have begun to sway and struggle under her own weight. Konrad analyzes the situation, Sophelle is on the ground, Keya is hurt and Hannah is standing fairly upright. He decides knocking Hannah down a few pegs was the correct course of action and swings his mace across. Unfortunately Konrad is not used to the weight and handling of a mace and misjudges his swing stopping short a few centimeters from his target. Sophelle quickly shuffles to her feet as well as she can and with the momentum from standing she swings up her staff, whacking Keya in the chin. As Keya attempts to retaliate, the lasting daze the previous hit has left on her causes her to miss.  
  
Sensing Keya may not be standing much longer Hannah trades blows with Konrad once again, one hitting the other in quick succession. Sophelle attempts one last hit to bring Keya down however is a split second to slow as Keya slams her quarter staff down on Sophelle, guiding Sophelle to the dirt as she remains there, unconscious. Konrad follows this up with one last finishing blow on Hannah leaving both teammates on the opposing team defeated. Konrad and Keya are barely standing, welts, and bruises covering their bodies as they bask in their sweaty victory. Captain Lang; The Royal Wizard, steps forward, clasping her hands together muttering an incantation under her breath. The runes surrounding the ring glow with a magical aura and each of the wounds on both the standing and unconscious begin to slowly patch themselves up. Soon enough no one had a scratch on them and Sophelle and Hannah's eyes begin to fluttered open, they spit out dirt as they push up on to their knees, holding their head and groaning. Konrad offers a hand to Hannah to help her back to her feet. she accepts the outstretched hand to aid her in standing back up. The two offering pleasant formalities of post-match congratulations before Konrad turns to his teammate, flashing his dazzling teeth as he holds his hand high waiting for a high-five. Keya eyes the hand with crossed arms before switching her gaze to Konrad himself.  
  
"Yes, we did alright," Sensing that there would be no high-fives Konrad attempts to smoothly run his firmly raised hand through his pushed back hair to save any embarrassment. Everyone had already seen the rejection. Each team steps back out of the magic circle, General Desmos approaches Konrad and Keya.  
  
"Alright, as the winners you get to choose the next two who will fight, obviously not yourself or your last opponent but; you get the idea." Konrad looks around to the remaining teams. Presphyra and Zioh; Mariain and Jhan; The fancily dressed human man along with the half-elf women in rags and the two dwarfs. Konrad smiles over to his friends,  
  
"Maybe that Sarah and Zioh duo?"  
  
"Alright," He turns to the two in question yelling out, "Sarah, Zioh! In the ring!" Zioh audibly whimpers, stiffening his body in response clutching the magical pendant provided to his chest. Presphyra takes a quarterstaff as she gently pushes Zioh into the circle.  
  
General Desmos turns to Keya and she chooses their opponents to be the Human man who takes a mace and the Half-Elf women also brings in a mace. Before the battle begins Zioh gives a small wave to the two he if meant to pummel in the next couple of minutes, or seconds. The half-elf women remains unimpressed and keeps her focus however, the human has a big goofy grin spread across his face as he waves back eagerly.  
  
"Hey Man! Sorry, I'm gonna have to give you a bit of a runaround."  
  
"That's alright, I'm sorry I gotta whip out a bit of the hocus pocus on you,"  
  
"Haha, what?"  
  
"You'll see." The red dust surrounding them pulses, signaling the safety of non-lethal damage. Zioh, is sharp and ready for the fight, sizing up his two opponents, identifying the human man as more tough and bulky very quickly. He holds out the pendent, focusing his magical energy with manifest as an aura of green energy around the pendant before he physically pushes it out and towards the man with his hand, sending a blast of green smoke towards him.  
  
Poison Spray - cantrip conjuration  
Casting Time: 1 action  
Range: 10 feet  
Duration: Instantaneous  
You extend your hand toward a creature you can see within range and project a puff of noxious gas from your palm. The creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 1d12 poison damage.  
  
The human, unfortunately is barely affected by the spray, his reaction being a mere grimace at the smell as he rubs his nose. Perhaps Zioh was just a little rusty, but rusty will not save him from said humans upcoming attack with his mace. Zioh, caught off guard by stuff a prompt reaction forgets to move, which leads Coree to easily land a blow straight to Zioh's stomach. Presphyra, in an attempt to fluster the human man who is successfully harming her partner, sends a flirty wink his way. The human is unimpressed and she follows it with a sigh as her quarterstaff whooshes passed him. The Half-Elf; Nikiya strikes Pesphyra at the exact moment her quarterstaff fails her, Whacking Presphyra in the back with her mace. Groans of pain ricochet through the audience just witnessing such a hit. Presphyra chokes on her breath and she swears she heard something crack, but she is still standing; barely.  
  
Zioh, seeing Presphyra current situation and her past strategy of charming her foes, decides perhaps he may work some magic on this human boy. He sends a wink to the man so unimpressed with Presphyra but adds along a pouty kiss, blowing in Coree's direction. Unlike Presphyra's try at charming her opponent's to let their guard down, Zioh actually manages to cause a dusting of red along the man's features and hesitation on his part, prompting Zioh to quickly charge up another spell. Icy blue energy form around his hands before a skeletal hand reaches out, pushing its way reaching out to Coree.  
  
Chill Touch - cantrip necromancy  
Casting Time: 1 action  
Range: 120 feet  
Duration: 1 round  
Make a ranged spell attack against the creature to assail it with the chill of the grave. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 necrotic damage, and it can’t regain hit points until the start of your next turn. Until then, the hand clings to the target.  
  
If you hit an undead target, it also has disadvantage on attack rolls against you until the end of your next turn.  
  
Coree's stunned expression doesn't last very long, the moment the skeletal hand touches him, the sheer amount of necrotic energy flowing through the spell is enough to knock him out cold. Presphyra stands not too far away from this ordeal, facing off with Nikiya barely standing on her own two feet. She clutches her quarterstaff, committed to doing as much as she can before she possibly passes out. Letting out her battle cry as she turns and swings the hard wood back on to Nikiya, hitting her cleanly in the stomach causing her to buckle over. Due to the intense pain Nikiya is unable to get enough leverage on her swing to hit Presphyra back, leaving her standing for a few more moments. With Coree out of the picture, Zioh turns his attention over to Nikiya, charging up green energy in his hands once again, prepared to send out a wave of Poison Spray. As the spray of poison hit Nikiya her body flounders and swiftly buckles over, hitting the ground with a loud thud. General Desmos quickly calls out the results of the match, Sarah and Zioh being victorious.  
  
As Captain Lang begins her spell incantation and the red powder pulse once more with light, Presphyra allows her body to slump tho the floor, tired and ready to be soothed with magic. 

The magic encircles each of the participants, erasing each blemish and injury caused in the previous battle. Coree and Nikiya rise to consciousness and take their time in standing to their feet. Zioh's grin widens as he skips up to Coree.  
"Hey there! That was a great fight!" Coree backs up a few steps when Zioh approaches,  
  
"I don't like that 'Hocus Pocus' you were talking about,"  
  
"I did warn you,"  
  
"Nah, it's just nerdy shit and fighting should be punching and stabbing and whacking," He says making all sorts of sound effects with his mouth,  
  
"I did beat you fair and square, you do have nice muscles though," Ziohs eyes drift before he catches himself.  
  
"Yeah, I know,"  
  
"You did good though, I'm proud of you."  
  
"...Thanks," Coree looks a bit confused, Zioh responds by blowing another kiss causing Coree's face to flush a bright red. Eventually, the two groups leave the ring with our winning duo picking the next set of fighters. Zioh was given the initial choice of choosing between Konrad and Keya and the two dwarfs Richard and Daggarbert, He ended up picking Konrad and Keya to proceed. Not wanting to be faced with battling Mariain in their next round, Presphyra decided on pitting her and Jhan up with Konrad and Keya.  
  
"Mary, Jhan, Keya and Tobias. It's time for you all to get in there." Keya and Konrad already had their respective weapons picked out due to their former battle with Hannah and Sophia. Marian carries in a mace with Jhan follow behind holding a quarterstaff. The circle begins to glow and the match begins. Konrad; despite never actually seeing Mariain fight, feels threatened by her large muscular frame and decides that the best strategy for this fight would be to take her down first. With this set in his mind, he confidently strides over swinging his mace landing a very solid hit on his brand new friend he met only the day before. Mariain takes the blow like a champion though and even with the loud thwack to her stomach she looks up at Konrad, her anger overpowering any pain, fire in her eyes.  
  
"You have made a very bad decsion," Konrad realising he was in immediate danger swiftly dodges Mariains first strike which seems to make the fire in her eyes fire glow that little bit brighter. While this showdown is happening Keya turns her focus onto the small elvish man, landing a swing on him; not as hard as she would've liked but a hit nonetheless. In the corner of her eye she catches a vision on Konrad running away from Mariain angrily trying to chase him down. This display causes a smirk to dance along her face which turns into a condescending laugh as Jhan swings and misses her.  
  
Deciding that angring Mariain is a bad idea, Konrad turns his attention to Jhan, but his thoughts still remind stuck on the angry dwarf behind him, distracting him from his mission, causing his mace to fly way off track. What Konrad didn't account for was that his avoidance of Mariain would anger her further, sending her into a Rage.  
  
Rage  
In battle, you fight with primal ferocity. On Your Turn, you can enter a rage as a Bonus Action.  
You have advantage on Strength Checks and Strength Saving Throws. When you make a melee weapon Attack using Strength, you gain a +2 bonus to the damage roll. This bonus increases as you level. You have Resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.  
Your rage lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are knocked Unconscious or if Your Turn ends and you haven't attacked a Hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then. You can also end your rage on Your Turn as a Bonus Action.  
  
Her body shakes, her jaw tightening as her legs harsh stomp against the ground as she sprints after Konrad yelling,  
  
"You get back here you little shit!" Zioh in the audience absolutely horrified at the display having never seen his employer's daughter like this and Presphyra standing next to him, eyes wide open, jaw slack. Mariain can see nothing but red, which ends up being her downfall since this causes her to miss Konrad once again with her weapon.  
  
Konrad sighs in reliefs as he side-steps Mariain’s strike, Keya nearby, very amused by the display, smiling to herself as she lands another weak hit on Jhan. Jhan flinches at the hit despite the lack of much force behind it, causing his staff to fall off-kilter, missing Keya entirely. Konrad; still avoiding Mariain, also swings at Jhan, hitting them also. It’s honestly a fairly sad sight, this lanky elf being teamed up on and beaten by these too other people, at this point Jhan is covered in bruises and Mariain is not amused. Mariain slams her mace into Konrad’s spine, a loud thwack resounding in the immediate area. Keya, seeing this, switches her focus to Mariain, seeing her as a bigger threat since Jhan had not managed a hit in a while. 

Immediately following Keya’s hit on Mariain, Jhan attempts; once again to lnd a single hit on Keya, no no avail. Presphyra and Zioh found themselves rooting for Jhan, shouting words of encouragement towards them. Konrad however, despite usually being a very kind and merciful person, knows that Jhan almost being out of commission is beneficial to him and would be one less person to worry about. He pulls but his mace and with one last hit, Jhan goes tumbling to the ground, managing to look up at Mariain in his last moments of consciousness to apologise. Mariain’s mind at this moment is clouded, she can barely tell right from left as she seethes, seeing Jhan’s apologetic face unlocks something inside of her and with a vicious growl she pummels her weapon into Konrad as he yells in pain. Barely standing on his own two feet. Mariain knew it was only a matter before she went down too, but she wanted to beat into Konrad as much as she could before that happened.  
  
Keya and Konrad, one after another wallop more blows at her however she takes them all without a single complaint and with nothing but fire in her eyes. She raises her mace high above her head and swings it down hard, crushing Konrad underneath; swiftly face planting him into the dirt, where he will stay until the end of the match. Another hit ricochet’s off of Mariain, Mariain strikes back, her mean mace harshly meeting flesh. Despite that the battle was beginning to close to an end this was the very first hit Keya had taken and unfortunately for Mariain, she was ready to take more. Keya scans over Marain’s body, she could ignore her own injuries as much as shes wants, however, the way her body swayed, the wounds, bruises broken skin and possible broken bones all tell Keya one thing. That Mariain is ready for a nap. With one final, meticulously placed swing Keya brings down the tough Mariain, and the audience surrounding the ring cheers for the semi-finalist’s victory.  
  
The pulsing healing energy surrounds Mariain before she even hits the ground, bringing her health back up and all her exhaustion dissipated. Mariain pulls herself up to her feet, no longer in a rage, and helps Jhan up as well. Nearby Konrad spits out the dirt that made its way into his mouth after Mariain’s final blow to his scalp. He sheepishly walks up to Mariain, pulling out his finger guns,  
  
“Hey, we cool?” Mariain however, ignore’s him, and she finger guns, rolling her eyes and turning away from him with a huff. Luckily General Desmos is there to interrupt the awkward exchange.  
  
“Congratulations Tobias and Keya, our first lot of finalists. The duo versing you two will be decided by this next round between Sarah and Zioh and Richard and Daggerbert!” The elven duo eye the two hulking dwarfs, who were currently stretching. Richard being built lean with muscle, Daggerbert however was obnoxiously brawny. Their rippling bodies truly were juxtaposition to Zioh and Presphyra’s own figures, two people who specialised in magic and didn’t look like they had picked up a weight in their life. It was bound to go well.  
  
As Konrad, Keya, Jhan and Mariain are leaving the circle so that Presphyra, Zioh, Daggerbert and Richard could start, Keya catches up to Konrad and whispers in his ear.  
  
“See, I told you I could handle myself. I might not be able to go two verses one but on my own I could take down anyone else here. I don’t need you,”  
  
“Well, you’re kinda stuck with me,”  
  
“Yes, I am, I just don’t want you getting in over your head thinking you’re important. Also avoid pissing people off next time, it was a close call.”

On the other side, Mariain and Jhan pass the duo of dwarves during the ring exchange. Through this brief exchange Mariain makes sure to get an eye-full of Daggerbert, the stout beefy man, he doesn’t have much facial hair by dwarf standards but Mariain isn’t quick to judge, instead emphasizing with her on the difficulty in growing a beard. Due to the his attire It’s difficult to see just how hairy Daggerbert may be on the rest of his body, but judging by the thick locks on his hands, he was very. Mariain was going to enjoy watching this fight, feeling slightly guiltily over taken pleasure watching the man over rooting for her friends.  
  
The two dwarfs both pick out a mace to use in the upcoming battle, while Zioh and Presphyra stick with their previous choices. As Crowd settles and the ring of dust has been reactivated the battle promptly begins with Daggerbert and Richard charging towards Presphyra and Zioh respectfully. Presphyra attempts to jump out of Daggerbert’s path but she just misses, the mace hitting the edge of her arm, the damage is bearable but still made her muscle ache. Richard also hits Zioh, Zioh reacting with a pained squeak as Richard scoffs, unsatisfied with his attack.  
  
During the first two moves of the fight Konrad finds it difficult to keep his eyes on it; not only because he is watching two of his friend get beaten up; but because both Mariain and Keya nearby him are glaring daggers into the sides of his face. Jhan attempts to calm Mariain down and, refusing to let him worry, she smiles and reluctantly refocuses her gaze to the fight before them. Keya however, doesn’t stop.  
  
It is time for Presphyra and Zioh’s retaliation, She attempts a counter attack of Daggerbert however misses her strike. Zioh closes his eyes focusing necrotic energy into his pendant, before blasting Chill Touch towards Richard who flinches at the touch. Another swing of Daggerbert’s mace hits Presphyra; and it hits her hard. She is already wobbling on her feet, the sway threatening to have her body give way and crumble to the floor. She is held up by pure pride and willpower. Meanwhile, Richard brings up his mace to hit Zioh but due to just how pathetic Zioh looked with his chubby cheeks and puppy eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to swing it down. Presphyra, on her last legs, misses Daggerbert with her next attack however Zioh luckily charges up a super-effective attack of Poison Spray which leaves Richard hacking and coughing in the green mist until he collapses onto the ground, writhing in pain.  
  
Daggerbert looks over to Zioh with new-found anger and swings down at him, missing. Presphyra retaliates with her own weapon landing a good foot away from her target. Zioh again charges up another spell, Chill touch once more. The necrotic energy clutches onto Daggerbert’s arm, searing pain rushing through his body, he lets out a yell as he brings down his mace once more on Zioh, guiding him to the ground. It was just Daggerbert and Presphyra left. Presphyra in a final act of desperation charges towards the remaining dwarf with a scream, slamming the quarter staff into his shoulder. The impact surprises Presphyra since she had, had such bad luck with hitting, her hesitation leading Daggerbert to get the one remaining strike he needing, leading Presphyra on the ground next to Zioh.  
  
The battle ends much like all the others before, with the circle glowing, alleviating any wounds acquired in the last minute and the participants leaving the ring. The dwarfish team leaves only to renew their weapons that got a bit beat up during the fight and re-enter the pit right after. Before Daggerbert re-enters however, Mariain approaches him, nodding towards Konrad,  
  
“Do me a favour; kick his ass for me,” Daggerbert flexes his arms and smirks back at her.  
  
“Anything for you,” Mariain gives a coy smile and winks back at Daggerbert before taking her position in the audience. The two duos find their way to opposite sides of the ring at the battle begins once more.  
  
Keya starts the fight, charging directly at Daggerbert, Konrad follows along straight after. Both the dwarves retaliate, directing their attacks to Konrad. It doesn’t take too long before Daggerbert falls unconscious, this infuriates Richard who knocks Konrad out with one more clean swipe of his mace. It was just Richard and Keya left. Keya manages to get one good hit in on Richard before Richard manages to also knock her cold to the ground. Mariain, however, notices that Keya had not been hit at all yet, the mace didn’t actually look to be a very hard blow. They way Keya crumbled seemed fake, like she threw the match. Just like that, Daggerbert and Richard are crowned the winners of the mock tournament.


End file.
